White Flight in the Context of Education: Evidence from South Carolina

Abstract

In the context of education, white flight refers to decreasing white enrollment in poor-performing, inner-city public schools. This article investigates white flight and the concomitant movement to better performing public schools and racially homogenous private schools using elementary school enrollment data from South Carolina, particularly the Columbia Metropolitan Area. The findings indicate a consistent loss of white enrollments from poor-performing, inner-city schools. The private school enrollment rates of whites are also sensitive to both the academic quality and the proportion of minorities in neighborhood schools as well as the racial composition of the neighborhoods.