Racial Characteristics of Central City Schools, Family Income, and the Suburbanization of Black and White Families with Children

Abstract

This paper examines the effects of racial characteristics of central city schools on decisions by individual white and black families with children to move to the suburbs. The extent to which these variables are dependent on the level of total family income is also considered, as well as the effect of income itself. The school characteristics are changes in segregation of central city schools, terminal level of segregation and percent black in the school district. Using logit analysis, terminal level of segregation seems to be more important than either of the other school variables. It appears that whites flow away from relatively desegregated school systems, while blacks are much less likely to move away from them, regardless of income. When the system is relatively segregated, the reverse pattern is observed.