Equity & Diversity

Opposing Sides Agree Conn. Integration Efforts Need More Money

By Jeff Archer — January 10, 2001 3 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Still miles apart in their assessment of their state’s response to a 1996 court order to better integrate its schools, Connecticut education officials and the plaintiffs in the state’s long-running desegregation case are both arguing that the remedy needs a greater investment of public dollars.

In presenting the state school board with a report on Connecticut’s desegregation efforts, Commissioner of Education Theodore J. Sergi pressed last week for a substantial increase in funding for the programs at the core of the state’s strategy to reduce racial and ethnic isolation in its schools. While characterizing the progress made as “reasonable first steps,” Mr. Sergi stressed that “much more must be done.”

The pitch coincided with the beginning of the legislature’s 2001 session and came less than a week after the plaintiffs in the desegregation case, known as Sheff v. O’Neill, announced that they were reviving their lawsuit. The state, they contend, has not yet adequately responded to the Connecticut Supreme Court’s mandate.

Instead of offering a wholesale criticism of the state’s response, however, the plaintiffs in their latest complaint argue that state officials have not backed it up with enough money. Like Commissioner Sergi, they said state lawmakers should allocate more funding to programs that allow students to transfer between school districts and to new magnet schools that draw from across Connecticut.

“We’re not opposed to voluntary measures,” said Dennis Parker, an assistant counsel with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and a lawyer for the plaintiffs. “We’re saying do it, but do it right, and do it on a scale and on a level that makes a difference.”

Effectiveness Questioned

Debate over how Connecticut should better integrate its schools has raged since 1989, when the Sheff case was first filed against the state on behalf of a group of Hartford-area students. At the time, more than 90 percent of students in the capital city’s school system were black or Latino.

Connecticut’s highest court ruled in their favor in 1996, and ordered the legislature to make the implementation of a remedy a top priority. Since then, the state has focused on crafting new incentives and opportunities for schools and students to take part in programs that allow children to attend schools outside their communities.

But the Sheff plaintiffs have consistently argued that the state’s efforts have failed to effectively change the racial or ethnic makeup of the schools in Hartford or its neighboring districts. When they first sought to revive the case in 1998, Superior Court Judge Julia L. Aurigemma issued an opinion saying the remedy hadn’t been given enough time.

Two years later, the plaintiffs now say it is clear that state response isn’t meeting the supreme court’s mandate, and they have asked the Superior Court to order state officials to make a substantially greater investment in their strategy.

In his progress report last week, however, Mr. Sergi pointed out that the number of students served by Connecticut’s interdistrict magnet schools had grown from 3,500 to 6,400 since 1997. During the same period, the number of children participating in the state’s interdistrict-transfer program, called Open Choice, has risen from about 470 to 1,480.

“It’s hard to argue that what we’ve done is sufficient, but there certainly have been visible, measurable steps taken,” Mr. Sergi said in an interview.

To achieve more progress, Mr. Sergi has proposed budget increases for the next two fiscal years for many elements of the state’s integration efforts. Under his proposals, annual funding for magnet schools would jump from $36.7 million this year to $52.6 million in 2003, and annual funding for Open Choice would grow to $12 million, from $8.2 million, during the same time.

Also last week, the state school board called on Connecticut lawmakers to amend the two programs to ensure that they do not exacerbate the problem of racial and ethnic isolation. Under the board’s proposal a new magnet school would not be approved unless at least 25 percent of it’s students would be from racial groups that were underrepresented in the local district, and groups of students who transferred between districts would have to reflect the overall racial composition of the systems they left.

Although he hadn’t seen all of Commissioner Sergi’s recommendations, Mr. Parker of the Legal Defense Fund said last week that a greater influx of spending should have come sooner, and he pointed to the fact that many of the state’s new magnet schools have waiting lists. He added that the plaintiffs planned to press ahead despite the budget proposals.

Related Tags:

A version of this article appeared in the January 10, 2001 edition of Education Week as Opposing Sides Agree Conn. Integration Efforts Need More Money

Events

This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Mathematics Webinar
Pave the Path to Excellence in Math
Empower your students' math journey with Sue O'Connell, author of “Math in Practice” and “Navigating Numeracy.”
Content provided by hand2mind
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Recruitment & Retention Webinar
Combatting Teacher Shortages: Strategies for Classroom Balance and Learning Success
Learn from leaders in education as they share insights and strategies to support teachers and students.
Content provided by DreamBox Learning
Classroom Technology K-12 Essentials Forum Reading Instruction and AI: New Strategies for the Big Education Challenges of Our Time
Join the conversation as experts in the field explore these instructional pain points and offer game-changing guidance for K-12 leaders and educators.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Equity & Diversity Opinion American Education Hurt Black Students. We Deserve Reparations
The value of the educational harm inflicted on my generation of Black students exceeds $2 trillion, writes Bettina L. Love.
5 min read
Illustration of a young black woman with missing pieces. Some of the slices are sliding back into place, making the figure whole again.
Vanessa Solis/Education Week + Madina Asileva/iStock
Equity & Diversity Schools Struggle to Properly Count Native Students. Some States Want Them to Try Harder
Michigan recently became the latest state to require the collection of data on Native K-12 students' tribal affiliations.
7 min read
Indigenous Navajo high school students in the hallway of a high school.
E+
Equity & Diversity School District's Anti-CRT Resolution Prompts Lawsuit From Teachers and Students
Teachers, parents, and students in a California district claim the resolution restricts their rights.
5 min read
Members of The Temecula Valley Educators Association, students and parents cheer in support of Temecula Valley Unified School District Superintendent Jodi McClay during a meeting at Temecula Valley High School on June 13, 2023.
Members of the Temecula Valley Educators Association, students, and parents cheer in support of Temecula Valley Unified School District Superintendent Jodi McClay during a meeting at Temecula Valley High School on June 13, 2023. The school board voted to fire McClay that day. TVEA and students are suing the district over its anti-critical race theory resolution.
Anjali Sharif-Paul/The Sun/SCNG via TNS
Equity & Diversity Opinion ‘Hate Is Taught’: The Lesson for Schools From the Racist Jacksonville Killings
A slew of anti-Black education policies have helped make Florida a sanctuary state for hate and violence, writes Tyrone C. Howard.
Tyrone C. Howard
4 min read
Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at a prayer vigil the day after three Black people were shot to death Aug. 26 in Jacksonville, Fla.
Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at a prayer vigil the day after three Black people were shot to death Aug. 26 in Jacksonville, Fla.
John Raoux/AP