Wednesday, January 7, 2015
Connecting School Politics with Criminal Justice in Ferguson
Since the protests in Ferguson, Missouri first began, I have been burdened by the thought that it warranted discussion here, but never found a way to comment appropriately. To comment here seemed opportunistic or too tangential to the issues within the normal scope of this blog. Two weeks ago, the ACLU made a connection or, at least, decided to focus on the education issues in the local school district.
A new ACLU lawsuit challenges the school leadership in the Ferguson-Florissant School District, arguing that the white dominated school board and the electoral process that produces it are in violation of the Voting Rights Act. “African-American students accounted for 77.1% of total enrollment in the 2011-2012 school year,” but only one of seven school board members are African American. The press release explains:
"The current [voting] system locks out African-American voters. It dilutes the voting power of the African-American community and severely undermines their voice in the political process," said Dale Ho, director of the ACLU's Voting Rights Project.
The Ferguson-Florissant School District has a history fraught with discrimination against African-American citizens. The district, which spans several municipalities, was created by a 1975 desegregation order intended to remedy the effects of discrimination against African-American students. Yet, 40 years later, there is just one African-American member on the seven-member board in a district where African-Americans constitute 77 percent of the student body.
Plaintiffs attribute the District's “significant racial disparities in terms of enrollment in gifted programs, access to advanced classes, assignment to special education programs, and school discipline” to the racially inequitable political process.
Voting rights litigation to address education problems is an interesting strategy (although not new). So as to avoid the requirement to demonstrate intentional discrimination in a lawsuit or issues of educational necessity under a disparate impact burden shifting analysis in an administrative complaint, this voting rights litigation goes straight at the educational leadership. It potentially assumes that changing the leadership will resolve the educational challenges, which is not often the case. Other structural inequalities are likely to limit the district regardless of its leadership. On the other hand, the lawsuit may really just be about making educational governance democratically responsible in a way that the criminal justice system has not. That, of course, is a worthy goal independent of the educational issues at stake, and is the important link to the events surrounding Michael Brown's death.
https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/education_law/2015/01/connecting-school-politics-with-criminal-justice-in-ferguson-.html
This is an interesting connection, though I share your concerns about the likelihood (unlikelihood?) of a change in school leadesrhip having a significant impact on the disparities within the district. I wanted to share another connection made between the rage unleashed in Ferguson and education - in November, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reran and added to an editorial it had run in February calling for consolidation of the 24 school districts in the St. Louis metro area. (see link to editorial below).
The editorial begins, "Of the numerous proposals to bring unity to the St. Louis region in the wake of issues raised by the death of 18-year-old Michael Brown, the one getting the least amount of attention might have the most potential for long-term gain." The editorial argues that the fragmented educational structure enables disparities among and encourages selfish action by racially distinct school districts and communities invested only in their own students' success. "Until everybody in the region has a direct investment in the success of every student in every school, the editorial goes on, "too many children have little chance to succeed." Perhaps aware of the uphill climb the idea faces, the editorial suggests that while the state legislature could make the fix, the local districts could alternatively simply agree to it voluntarily through a metropolitan open enrollment policy to replace the state's interdistrict transfer program.
As with the ACLU's suit on voting issues, there are basic questions about the efficacy of this proposal - not to mention its practical and political viability (for example, the editorial suggests that transportation would be provided, but doesn't indicate how it would be paid for). But the connection between the demographic shifts of the 60s and 70s - within which school desegregation played such an enormous role - and the framework of white leadership within a majority black population that underlies the rage in Ferguson cannot be ignored. Not only has that history produced the context that helped trigger Ferguson, the continued racial disparities in educational opportunities contribute to and perpetuate many of the other elements at play.
The original editorial (pre-Michael Brown) noted presciently, "Every decade, it seems, the story is the same. St. Louis will do just enough to quell a crisis, but it won't truly embrace the one solution that has the potential to solve the problem." I am not sure that school district consolidation is "the one solution," I agree that the focusing on structures that isolate communities and perpetuate educational disparities is a good place to start.
Posted by: Daniel Kiel | Jan 13, 2015 8:15:36 PM