1208 Urban Geography, 2011, 32, 8, pp. 1208–1226. http://dx.doi.org/10.2747/0272-3638.32.8.1208 Copyright © 2011 by Bellwether Publishing, Ltd. All rights reserved. SCHOOL DESEGREGATION AND WHITE FLIGHT REVISITED: A SPATIAL ANALYSIS FROM A METROPOLITAN PERSPECTIVE 1 Haifeng Zhang 2 Department of Geography and Geosciences University of Louisville Abstract: Recent studies on school choice have observed a continuing trend of white flight from urban public schools in response to the rising number of poor minority students. However, few researchers have investigated contemporary patterns of white flight in the context of school desegregation, even though a large number of school districts in the United States are still being integrated. This article explores the effects of school desegregation plans on the departure of white students for suburban districts and into private schools across metropolitan Louisville. A spatial analysis of the latest public- and private-school data suggests that desegregation is significantly related to these forms of white flight after controlling for suburbanization and other contextual variables. This research also has potential implications for school integration and assignment poli- cies. [Key words: School desegregation, white flight, proximity, private schools.] One of the major concerns in the wake of school desegregation since the 1960s is white flight, wherein white families relocate to suburban districts or send their children to private schools in order to avoid desegregation 3 (Clotfelter, 1999, 2004; Diamond and Bodenhamer, 2001; Fairlie and Resch, 2002; Ledwith and Clark, 2007; Logan et al., 2008). The literature suggests that relocating to suburban districts becomes an outlet for white families wanting to evade desegregation plans because those policies are rarely enforced across school district boundaries 4 (Farley et al., 1980; Kruse, 2005; Reber, 2005; Logan et al., 2008). This issue has intensified in recent years as metropolitan areas expanded and incorporated more outlying areas, which usually have independent public-school systems because of the fragmented nature of metropolitan governance in the U.S. (Bischoff, 2008). In terms of white movement toward private schools, it is economically more practicable for families whose heads are employed in the central city. Although the U.S. Supreme Court recently invalidated the use of race in student inte- gration plans to eliminate school segregation, 5 hundreds of school districts across the 1 I thank the editors and anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and suggestions that improved the quality of this article. 2 Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Haifeng Zhang, Department of Geography and Geosciences, University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky 40292; telephone: 502-852-2695; fax: 502-852- 4560; email: c.zhang@louisville.edu 3 In addition to private schooling, home schools may be an alternative for families who want to avoid school de- segregation in public schools, especially for those who are religious. However, because of its overall small size (only about 1% of U.S. students are home schooled) and data availability, little research has addressed the issue of white flight aimed at home schools. 4 Milliken v. Bradley (1974) is a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that prohibited the inclusion of suburban districts into desegregation plans implemented in the Detroit metropolitan area in early 1970s. This verdict was widely used as a benchmark for later court cases in evaluating the constitutionality of the extent and scope of desegregation plans in metropolitan areas. Interdistrict desegregation plans in metropolitan areas in the U.S. were generally disallowed because of this ruling (Raffel, 1998). 5 In a joint ruling in the cases of Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District and Meredith v. Jefferson County Board of Education, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down race-conscious desegregation plans in