Beyond the gaps in income, the contrast in racial makeup of these three towns is substantial. Massachusetts has a long history of racial and economic de facto segregation and even within the county, nearby Haverhill was highlighted by University of Richmond's recent project on the history of redlining.

Many towns in the county maintain bylaws that make it difficult to build affordable housing, which tends to keep the towns wealthier and whiter.

Busing: A Historied Attempt at Racial Balance

Famously in 1975, Boston and its neighboring suburbs attempted to desegregate the schools by requiring some students from wealthier and whiter communities of the suburbs to be bussed to schools in the inner-city and some students were bussed from the city out to the suburbs. There was significant backlash. People threw “eggs, bricks, and bottles” at buses carrying black children and police wore combat gear to fight protestors. Eventually, the communities abandoned the practice.

According to a staff report at the time, the goal of the court ordered desegregation was to achieve “racial balance,” a term used to mean that all schools in the Boston Public School system were to have similar percentages of white and minority school populations. Schools were allowed a “5 percent leeway” between percentages of white and minority students and the report included this example:

White students represent 51 percent of the city’s students, so white enrollment could number from 56 to 46 percent at any citywide school. Black and other minority students, who are 49 percent of the city’s total school enrollment, may range from 54 to 44 percent of enrollment at individual citywide schools.
—Staff Report for the Hearing of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights

While Lawrence, Andover, and North Andover were never towns included in Boston's busing plan, the school districts today nonetheless share similar racial contrasts as Boston and neighboring communities experienced in 1975. As an exercise, I applied Boston's 1975 standard for "racial balance" to the three school districts to imagine what a racially balanced school population might look like.

Forgiving the 5 percent leeway, quick calculations yield striking results for the towns of Andover, Lawrence, and North Andover. If the total school population size remains the same but the racial balance is altered, the changes would be drastic for these three towns. Lawrence High would gain 1,082 white students from the other two schools, 14 times the current white student population. 537 white students from North Andover High would attend Lawrence High School and there would be 555 new hispanic students at North Andover High. If the school populations were equally sized with racial balance, all three schools would become majority minority schools.