Abstract
The article addresses the persistent racial and socioeconomic segregation in the basic education system of the United States, which not only stratifies the student body of this nation, but has assumed worrying proportions, making it possible, according to a significant portion of researchers in the field, to regard it as a true system of educational apartheid. It explores both the concentration of income existing in this society, the most unequal among the developed countries, even though it has the biggest economic, political, military and cultural power in the world, as well as the worrying health and child poverty indicators, which also position the nation among the worst performers among the members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Such socioeconomic inequality is reflected in education, forming a school system whose duality is clearly engendered even before the child´s entry in the institutional school life, permeating the entire academic career of the students.
Keywords
racial segregation; socioeconomic segregation; poverty; education; United States