Why these NJ schools are so diverse, while many are segregated — affordable housing has been key

The fourth-graders at Claremont Elementary School in Franklin Township, New Jersey already know many of the basic building blocks of a good neighborhood. Days before the end of the school year in June, they were busy designing environmentally friendly communities using protractors and poster-sized dry erase boards.

One agreed-upon guideline among the 9- and 10-year-olds: Houses belong near leafy parks, not by gas stations or power plants. 

"[People] can get really sick because of all the pollution that's like right by your house,” student Jaynellie Rodriguez said.

Like her imagined neighborhood, Rodriguez said her real house is by a big wooded area. But she knows that’s not the case for each of her classmates, who come from all sorts of socio-economic and racial backgrounds.

It's a discussion that feels natural in Franklin Township Public Schools in Somerset County, one of the most diverse districts in New Jersey, according to a report card issued by the state education department. Housing advocates say the township is a model for the rest of the state because of its embrace of a set of nearly half-century old court rulings mandating affordable housing.

The unusual legal mandate known as the Mount Laurel Doctrine was the first of its kind in the country to incentivize low-cost housing production through municipal zoning rules, and such rules remain rare. But the doctrine, which is still in effect, has a tattered history of enforcement. For two decades, lawmakers allowed wealthy towns to pay their way out of their court-mandated housing obligations, and students in those municipalities attended much less diverse schools, Gothamist found. 

Now the state is fighting a lawsuit filed by a coalition of nonprofits alleging it sends tens of thousands of Black and Latino students to segregated schools that are just 1% white. The nonprofits say assigning children to schools based on where they live — in a state with 564 municipalities and nearly 600 school districts — replicates existing residential segregation inside classrooms. The lawsuit cites a study that found New Jersey schools are among the most segregated for Black and Latino students in the U.S. 

One solution, housing advocates have long argued, is to make the state’s housing policy better reflect the economic and racial diversity of New Jersey’s population. In that regard, they said, Franklin Township is a leader. The 7,000 students at Franklin Schools speak more than 65 languages and are about 37% Hispanic, 33% Black, 15% Asian and 11% white, enrollment data shows. About 40% receive free or reduced lunch, an indicator of the proportion of low-income families. In town, about 25% of the township’s housing stock is multi-family homes.

* * *