Education officials to step up civil rights enforcement

Civil rights in the nation's schools will take on new importance at the federal Department of Education.

The department plans to take a deeper look at issues ranging from programs for immigrant students learning English to equal access to college preparatory courses.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan plans to outline the department's plans in a speech delivered Monday in Selma, Ala. It will commemorate the 45th anniversary of "Bloody Sunday," in which several hundred civil rights protesters were beaten by state troopers during a voting rights march.

In his prepared remarks, Duncan highlights several jarring inequities. For example, white students finishing high school are about six times more likely to be college-ready in biology than black students.

And a quarter of all students drop out before their graduation, and half of those come from 12 percent of the nation's high schools.

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