Well, despite New Jersey being ranked as having some of the most racially segregated schools in the nation, most New Jersey voters don't believe it.

That's according to a new Fairleigh Dickinson University poll released today, which found the majority of families are satisfied with the amount of diversity in their town.

The survey comes as a statewide lawsuit that could prompt more school district mergers enters its second year of mediation.

Senior correspondent Joanna Gagis, I guess, looked into the poll's findings and where things stand in the court's.

We have to make sure people understand.

Number one, segregation is a problem.

New Jersey schools.

And number two, something is going to happen.

And yet on both measures, it seems New Jersey voters are largely unaware of the issue.

First, that New Jersey is the sixth most segregated state for Black students, seventh for Latino and second, that a court case brought by the Latino Action Network could dramatically change our schools.

5% of voters, New Jersey, say they've heard a lot about this case.

Only 11% say they've heard some 65% of voters don't resent a Voters in New Jersey say they've heard nothing about this case whatsoever.

Those numbers come from a fairly Dickinson University poll released today, taking the Pulse on voters awareness of the problem and getting their take on possible solutions, none of which have been made public because the case is in mediation right now, sent there by New Jersey's Attorney general, Matt Platkin, who argued that an agreement could be reached outside of a court order.

But to understand the solution, you first have to understand the problem, says Rutgers University, is Vandy and Campbell.

The harms are clear four four students in segregated schools.

They are just simply not progressing at the same pace.

And students in in mixed schools are in white isolated schools in every measure college enrollment, high school graduation, in many cases, not at all in test scores.

They are just not having the same experiences and outcomes.

And so what you see in the data is that generation after generation, the students in these contexts are simply behind.

According to New Jersey's Department of Education, this is how New Jersey students break down by demographic, a very diverse mix of racial and ethnic backgrounds.

But of the state's 663 school districts, about 80 of them contain 90% or more of black or Latino students, accounting for close to the entire population of black and Latino students in New Jersey.

Yet the after you poll shows that 79% of respondents think their town reflects a good mix of racial backgrounds.

New Jersey is 25% Black and Hispanic, and there's very few schools in Jersey that actually really look like that.

Dan Cassino asked voters in his poll which solutions they'd most agree to to help integrate the schools.

Unpopular were measures like merging districts or bussing students across town lines.

The most, except one for Jersey voters is actually regional magnet schools.

And the idea is that counties or large areas would set up magnet schools that would attract students attracted from across districts.

Students anywhere in that county or that area could come and those schools would be would achieve a degree of racial integration.

60% of voters say that that's okay with them.

You know why?

Well, this is popular because it doesn't mean fundamentally reshaping the education system in New Jersey, a system that's built on the idea of home rule.

Reverend Charles Boyer took a survey of families in largely black and Latino districts and found the same pushback to merging.

They wanted desegregated resources.

They wanted desegregate how black children in particular were treated in comparison to all other people groups.

And the last piece, they wanted a curriculum that was inclusive of who they are and recognize them and their humanity.

So they very much wanted to be in the very schools that they were in, but they wanted their schools to have just as many resources to have a quality level of education.

But advocates like New Jersey's Institute for Social Justice say you can't address segregation in schools without addressing it in housing.

All these issues are directly connected.

Issues of housing affordability, issues of economic equality are related to issues of segregation.

New Jersey has one of the largest racial wealth gap, which is driven by a significant racial homeownership gap, driven by redlining practices that have kept people of color out of New Jersey suburbs.

But the deadline for any solutions has been pushed back again.

Mediation has been extended to January 15th, although an update is due this Friday.

For NJ Spotlight News, I'm Joanna Gagis.