LANSING, Mich., Feb. 15 (UPI) -- Sixty-percent of African American students in Michigan attend a racially segregated school, down only three percent in the past decade.
A study by Michigan State University's Education Policy Center shows the number of schools with 80 percent African American enrollment or more has increased by 137 since the 1992-1993 school year, Booth Newspapers reports.
Of that jump, 87 schools were charter schools, most in the more impoverished Detroit, Flint and Pontiac areas.
David Plank, co-director of the MSU center, said charter schools aren't to blame but they "are exacerbating the problem."
He said African Americans leaving segregated public schools are just moving to segregated charter schools and nothing is being done to address overall segregation in the state.
The Civil Rights Project at Harvard University reported last month Michigan schools were one of the most segregated in the country, making little progress since 1970.
Harrison Blackmond, president of the Detroit Chapter of the Black Alliance for Educational Options, blames "underperforming public schools" as the reason African Americans are going to charter schools.
Fifty-five percent of charter school students in the state are African American.
They make up 19 percent of overall students.
