US: Black Students Suspended at Three Times the Rate of White Students

Black students, along with those with disabilities, are suspended and arrested at much higher rates than their white counterparts, a new report released by the United States Education Department has stated.

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Black students are suspended or expelled at three times the rate of their white counterparts; the report pointed out. 

The report says such discriminatory practices have impacted the education of the Black students and has setback the decades of gains made to impart equal education, such as Supreme Court’s landmark 1954 Brown versus Board of Education ruling which banned segregation in schools, along with the 1964 Civil Rights Act guaranteed equal access to education. 

"This data collection shines a clear, unbiased light on places that are delivering on the promise of an equal education for every child and places where the largest gaps remain," U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said in a statement. "In all, it is clear that the United States has a great distance to go to meet our goal of providing opportunities for every student to succeed." 

The report sheds light on the statistics from the 2015-2016 school year’s civil rights data collection on school safety and discipline and students’ access to science and math courses. 

An earlier report released at the beginning of April by the Government Accountability Office, GAO, also confirmed that the Black students and those with disabilities are disciplined at a higher rate than other students. The report emphasized the "implicit bias" from educators and staffers which "may cause them to judge students’ behaviors differently based on the students’ race and sex."  
The news also comes at a time when the Donald Trump administration is planning to roll back some of the protections for minorities in education, including the Obama-era recommendations for the states to analyze disproportionate use of suspensions and expulsions. 

The information has been released as part of an ongoing survey by the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights which for the first time since 2000, has used the data from all 16,500 American school districts, representing 49 million students.

The ongoing comprehensive survey revealed the schools leave minority students and students with disabilities at a disadvantage. 

“Unfortunately, too many children don’t have equitable access to experienced and fully licensed teachers, as has again been proven by the data in this report," Dennis Van Roekel, president of the National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers union, told the Huffington Post.

"This is a problem that can and must be addressed."