Nebraska Court Halts Omaha Breakup Plan

Plaintiffs in state case say law raises issues around voting rights.

A controversial state plan to break up the Omaha, Neb., public schools into three districts, largely along racial and ethnic lines, and join the entire metropolitan area in one united “learning community” has hit a major roadblock.

Douglas County District Judge J. Michael Coffey last week granted a temporary halt to the new state law, which is designed to force the Omaha metropolitan area’s 11 suburban and urban school districts to share finances, tax levies, and resources, and devise a plan to better integrate their schools.

The most disputed aspect of the package is a plan that would divide the Omaha district into three smaller districts based on existing attendance boundaries at the start of the 2008-09 school year. The result, opponents say, would be one mostly black, one mostly Latino, and one mostly white district. Within the 11-district learning community, however, students would be free to attend any school. ( "Nebraska to Break Up Omaha District," ...