WASHINGTON — Today, during a congressional briefing on strategies to increase diversity in schools with U.S. Department of Education Secretary John B. King, U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), member of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, announced new legislation to promote diversity and narrow opportunity gaps in schools across the nation. When it is finalized and introduced, Murphy’s bill will build on President Obama’s Stronger Together initiative and authorize federal funding for planning and implementation grants to school districts for voluntary measures to increase diversity in schools such as hiring and training new teachers, expanding transportation resources, and creating innovative school programs.

“The reality is that we’re losing the fight when it comes to making our schools more diverse across this nation. In Connecticut, we are the most affluent state in the country with some of the least diverse, most segregated schools,” said Murphy. “This bill would provide states with resources to help enact voluntary measures that will make schools more diverse and reduce the economic and racial isolation that sadly exists in places like Hartford and Bridgeport. The federal government shouldn’t sit idly by as racial and socioeconomic divisions in our schools only get worse.”