Motion Could Challenge Racial “Re-Segregation” In N.C. School District

By Cash MichaelsSpecial to the NNPA from the Wilmington Journal WIMINGTON (NNPA) – In a legal maneuver that could challenge the racial re-segregation of public school systems and the school choice movement in North Carolina, Attorney Julius Chambers has filed a legal motion in Wake Superior Court charging that the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Public School System (CMS) denies Black students a “sound basic” education because the student assignment plan relegates them to high poverty inner city schools. CMS employs school choice, which ultimately allows White parents to send their children to predominately White and resourceful suburban schools, while most Black and Hispanic parents are forced to send their children to older, crumbling, poorly staffed city schools. Chambers, one of the nation’s top civil rights attorneys and the former chancellor of North Carolina Central University and head of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, made the motion recently based on the ruling by Wake Superior Court Judge Howard Manning, Jr. in the 10-year-old Leandro case. That ruling made it clear that every North Carolina public school student is constitutionally entitled to a “sound basic” education by the state. Judge Manning compelled lawmakers to come up with $220 million to help under-funded school systems in poor counties to meet that goal. In the case of CMS (which was one of the plaintiffs in Leandro), Attorney Chambers, filing the motion on behalf of three high schoolers and one middle school student, argued that pupils attending high poverty schools are denied the same quality education as their White suburban counterparts, and should thus be considered under the same criteria as Leandro. The CMS School Board met in emergency conference to figure out a way to counter Chambers’ motion, which they’re taking seriously. It later released a statement that CMS “firmly believes that the students’ interests are being adequately represented by the school district.” However, CMS is already in Judge Manning’s crosshairs. He has scheduled a hearing for March 7 for CMS officials to explain how one-third the district’s 17 high schools have pass rates on state examinations below 50 percent, even though CMS spends $2,400 per pupil, more than many other school districts its size. Manning says poor management is responsible for “these sorry scores.” CMS officials disagree. On Wednesday, Judge Manning indicated that he will not consider Chambers’ motion on student assignment until after the March CMS hearing. Chambers will be allowed to ask questions of CMS officials at that time. “There’s no rush whether we take that up or not,” Manning said. “I’ve got the big picture we need to look at.” CMS, in its answer to Chambers’ motion, noted that three of the four students named are in schools they chose. The other has left the district. Only one of the students, CMS maintains, is attending a high poverty school, and has not opted out when given the opportunity. The case has statewide implications. If Judge Manning rules in Chambers favor, that means every school system allowing parents to racially decide where their children attend public school, will be legally required to ensure that predominately Black and Hispanic inner city schools are funded properly to guarantee each child a “sound basic” education. Currently, many critics allege, that is not the case. For Chambers, “separate but unequal” education for Black students is an old issue. In 1970, Chambers successfully argued before the U.S. Supreme Court to have Charlotte-Mecklenburg Public Schools desegregated, forcing the CMS to bus Black students to better schools. That practice ended a few years ago when a federal judge, citing no further need for it, ended the desegregation order. CMS then went to school choice in 2002.