Giving Compass' Take:

• Kevin Mahnken reports that supporters of income integration see it as a viable alternative to failed attempts at racial integration. 

• What are the potential pitfalls of attempting to integrate based on income? How can funders help to support research into the benefits and best practices of income integration? 

• Learn about the impact of school choice on integration. 

Sixty-four years after the landmark Brown v. Board decision, integration has regained its status as one of the most urgent objectives in education today. In the wake of a large-scale resegregation of public schools since the 1990s, a number of journalists, policy analysts, and policymakers are pushing to introduce greater diversity in public schools.

While the players differ with respect to means — the debate around whether school choice policies such as charters and vouchers mitigate or contribute to segregation burns hotter than ever — much of the reform movement is united in at least the stated aim of making schools more representative of the United States as a whole.

That goal is typically justified on academic grounds: Whether in kindergarten or college, students learn more when exposed to peers of varying backgrounds, integration advocates assert. But some also invoke the claims at the heart of the Brown-era integration debates, arguing that polarized school communities pose a threat to civil society.

“It’s an elegant legal solution to the … roadblock Supreme Court case in front of districts that are seeking to integrate racially,” Richard Kahlenberg, a senior fellow at The Century Foundation, told The 74. “But it’s not just a cute way of getting around the Supreme Court. Socioeconomic integration also has power as an education reform strategy in its own right.”

San Antonio’s policy is a big idea, but not an unprecedented one. Dozens of smaller school districts have been implementing socioeconomic integration plans for roughly two decades now. According to The Century Foundation, a left-leaning think tank that has loudly advocated for a class-focused approach to integration, districts and charter schools aiming for some form of heterogeneity by class now enroll nearly 4.5 million students.

Read the full article about income intergration by Kevin Mahnken at The 74.