The thing that we know works, when allowed to, is racial and economic integration. It's not that there's something magical about a Black child just sitting next to a White child, or a poor child sitting next to a wealthy child. It's in the ways wealthy communities have often hoarded money for themselves and their children at the expense of poor communities. The way you get access to those funds is through integration. We know integration works.

American studies scholar Noliwe Rooks examines the economics of educational apartheid - from the business that require and reinforce racial and economic segregation in American schools, to the bipartisan effort to turn poor communities into experiments for capital - and explains why integration is the only path to equality for American children.

Noliwe is author of Cutting School: Privatization, Segregation, and the End of Public Education from The New Press.