LASHAWN ROBINSON’S oldest son, Jarod, has missed out on Hartford, Connecticut’s public magnet school lottery year after year, even though the school has the space to take him. Once a student who loved school and excelled at it, years of bullying and poor education at his neighborhood school have slowly drained the boy’s academic vigor. The reason? He’s black.
Despite the dismantling of state-sponsored segregation decades ago, many cities in America, including Hartford, remain racially segregated. In fact, more than 75% of Hartford’s population is black or Hispanic, whereas the suburban Hartford metropolitan area is nearly 70% white. Not surprisingly, the Hartford school system reflects the segregation of the families it serves: The suburban schools are largely white, and the city schools are largely black and Hispanic.
To combat this racial segregation, some parents sued in 1989, asking the state courts to declare the de facto racial segregation unconstitutional under the Connecticut state constitution. And they won. In 1996, the Connecticut Supreme Court held that the racial segregation in the Hartford school system violated the state constitution and that all Hartford children have the right to a “substantially equal” education.
In the wake of this decision, Connecticut enacted a number of laws designed to end Hartford’s educational segregation. One new law established “magnet schools” in areas with the worst educational track records, which disproportionately affected black students.
These magnet schools have proven to be highly successful at educating Hartford’s kids. Especially when contrasted with the failing inner-city neighborhood schools, magnet schools offer a ray of hope to parents who want to ensure their kids get a quality education. But, there’s one major problem with the magnet schools—the law limits the number of black and Hispanic students who can attend.
Connecticut law mandates that 25% of the seats must remain “reduced-isolated,” which is government doublespeak for “white.” Because most of the white kids live in the suburbs—and the suburban neighborhood schools are just fine—few suburban parents have any reason to send their kids to the inner-city magnet schools, even though they are excellent schools.
As a result, magnet schools are forced to turn away deserving black and Hispanic families who live down the street. If the schools cannot find enough white kids to meet their quota, the law prohibits the schools from filling the empty seats with students of color. They have to leave those seats empty!
So even if the magnet school wants the kids, has space for the kids, and no white kids are applying to the school to keep it “in balance,” the magnet school still has to turn away every black or Hispanic child who would push the overall demographics to less than 25% white.
That’s why Pacific Legal Foundation is representing eight Hartford parents of inner-city students, including LaShawn. We are fighting for their right to get their children the best education possible, and their race shouldn’t deny them the opportunity to attend an excellent school.
Each of these kids deserves a quality education, and they shouldn’t be shut out of the best schools simply because they have the “wrong” skin color. PLF will make sure this injustice gets corrected.
