Data shows that New Jersey has one of the most severely segregated public-school systems in the country. Because of that intense segregation, thousands of New Jersey children will never have the opportunity to learn, socialize, engage in athletics, or interact with children from racial backgrounds different from their own. Decades of confirmed research has demonstrated that children of all races who attend schools that are diverse do better academically, attend and graduate high school and college at higher rates, and have far more significant and positive interactions with people of different races and ethnicities throughout their lives.