Is it the responsibility only of BME parents and children to shoulder the burden of integration into ‘common values of citizenship’ while white parents are granted the privilege of individual choice? Dr Claire Alexander, London School of Economics

A new report by the Runnymede Trust being launched today blames government policies and a lack of understanding of the factors that influence parental choice for racially segregated schools.

The report: School Choice & Ethnic Segregation: Educational Decision-making among Black and minority ethnic groups , states that secondary schools are more segregated than most communities and that educational policies are at odds with the government’s own policies intended to promote community cohesion.

The findings, based on interviews with parents and children within three different education authorities point to race being an important factor when parents decide which schools their children should attend.

Parents of black and minority ethnic children who took part in the study said that they felt the choices they were given were often either less successful schools predominantly attended by non-white children and rejected by white parents, or successful schools attended predominantly by white children outside their community where they feared their children would be isolated.

The report criticises the government for failing to take account of how parents from different racial backgrounds select secondary schools for their children based on a range of factors. Last month its own report highlighted how in many areas of Britain, schools are developing with populations that are predominantly black, white or Asian.

Fears have grown that in some areas, white parents deliberately move to avoid sending their children to schools that have a high intake of non-white children. In October last year, Trevor Phillips said that “white parents… are unhappy about putting children in schools where they think their children are going to be in a minority and that creates a dynamic of white flight from those schools and, therefore, those residential areas."

‘White flight’ is seen as problematic in many quarters as in keeping children racially segregated they are not being adequately prepared to live and work in a multicultural society. Conservative Shadow Education Minister David Willets said recently that schools should be able to select pupils by race to ensure an ethnic mix.

The issue will be discussed today at a special meeting in the House of Commons which will include a cross-party debate. Dr Claire Alexander from the London School of Economics asked: “Is it the responsibility only of BME parents and children to shoulder the burden of integration into ‘common values of citizenship’ while white parents are granted the privilege of individual choice?”