The U.S. Department of Education recently announced a $10 million grant program to support school integration planning and implementation. Applications are due July 7, 2023. More details below. Share this info with your networks via Twitter!

POLICY UPDATES

If you want to learn more about federal support for school integration, including Fostering Diverse Schools and Strength in Diversity, watch the recording of our May 16 webinar with The Century Foundation's Bridges Collaborative and Magnet Schools of America, featuring Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT), ED staffers, and various education policy experts and practitioners.

FEDERAL COURT UPHOLDS ADMISSIONS POLICY AT VA SELECTIVE HIGH SCHOOL

On May 23, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled to uphold a recently-adopted admissions process at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, VA, finding that it had not discriminated against Asian American students. Coalition for TJ v. Fairfax County School Board challenged changes in Fairfax County School Board’s admissions policy for the selective high school, including the elimination of an entrance exam and inclusion of student experience factors. According to the Associated Press, "The first freshman class admitted under the new rules saw a significantly different racial makeup. Black students increased from 1% to 7%; Hispanic representation increased from 3% to 11%. Asian American representation decreased from 73% to 54%."

NCSD joined an amicus brief with the Poverty and Race Research Action Council, ACLU Foundation, ACLU Foundation of Virginia, Lawyers’ Committee For Civil Rights, and Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights in this case. While we see this ruling as a victory, it is likely the case will be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Related news coverage:

• High School Did Not Discriminate Against Asian American Students, Court Rules (New York Times, May 23)
• How a Court Ruling on a School’s Admission Policy Could Impact Others (Education Week, May 25)
• Elite High School’s Admissions Plan May Face Supreme Court Test (New York Times, May 29)

NCSD STAFF UPDATES

What We've Been Up to Recently

NCSD Welcomes Summer 2023 Interns

NCSD is excited to welcome our 2023 summer interns:

• Yaz Liow is a rising junior at Yale University (Comparative Literature and Education Studies)
• Karina Maciel is a rising junior at Amherst College (American Studies)
• Jamie Nicolas is a rising junior at Yale University (American Studies and Education Studies)

Our 2023 Intern Cohort will be supporting projects related to school finance; acknowledging and repairing harms associated with the loss of Southern Black educators post-Brown v. Board; and youth voice and advocacy. We look forward to showcasing their work in upcoming newsletters!

NCSD's Jenna Tomasello Receives Certificate in Education Finance from Georgetown University

NCSD communications consultant Jenna Tomasello recently completed Georgetown's Certificate in Education Finance course. The three-month program, led by Marguerite Roza (a research professor at Georgetown University and director of the Edunomics Lab) equips participants with practical skills for strategic fiscal management, policy analysis, and leadership to "do the most for students."

NCSD MEMBER UPDATES

CROSS-MOVEMENT RESOURCES

• A new article by LaToya Baldwin Clark, "The Critical Racialization of Parents' Rights" argues that we cannot understand the explosive growth of the anti-CRT movement without understanding how parents’ rights over education have historically been and continue to be racialized. Specifically, that the “twin” movements against CRT and for parents’ rights legally and culturally enshrine colorblindness and innocence to resist and reverse any claims for or efforts to achieve racial justice.

• The Color of Law explained how our segregated and unequal society was created by racially explicit and unconstitutional policies at all levels of government. As a follow-up to that book, father-daughter duo Richard and Leah Rothstein co-authored a new book entitled Just Action: How to Challenge Segregation Enacted Under the Color of Law. The authors describe what citizens and residents can do in their own communities to redress the inequality and deprivation that are ongoing effects of government-imposed segregation. Just Action will be released on June 1 and is available for preorder.

NEWS FROM ACROSS OUR COUNTRY

National -

• White Parents Say They Want Diverse Schools, But Will They Send Their Kids? (Education Week, May 23) - "We’re not denying the benefits of school integration that centers the people who public schools have marginalized. When considering whether or how to integrate public schools, policymakers must focus on the educational goals of Black and brown parents and do so intentionally—not paternalistically as reflected in policies of the past."

• Opinion | America’s Poverty Is Built by Design (Politico, May 21) - "[T]hree quintessentially American habits: exploitation of the poor; subsidization of the rich; and the intentional segregation of the affluent and the poor such that opportunity is hoarded and social mobility is rare."



• What About School Desegregation? Considering New Strategies Around Race And Education (Forbes, May 16) - "I believe we can develop realistic strategies to combat these inequities, even within the context of huge demographic and other societal changes in America that have blurred a cohesive vision for desegregation since the decision in Brown." Authored by Raymond Pierce, President and CEO of the Southern Education Foundation.

• Civil rights icon Ruby Bridges says reading festivals can counteract book bans (Chalkbeat, May 16) - "[Bridges] spoke to reporters about how her story wound up being the target of book bans, what must be done to combat them, and why stories like hers are especially important during this time."

• Massive resistance to Brown’s integration decision purged Black educators (Brookings Institution, May 9) - "Brown was not intended to simply mean that Black and white students should be educated side-by-side to achieve integrated schools. Brown, and many legal decisions subsequent to it, demanded that public schools integrate wholly... The failure to integrate school personnel was, and remains, a key part of the unfulfilled promise of Brown."

Arkansas -

• Arkansas Seeks End to School Desegregation Settlements (Wall Street Journal, May 19) - "As Arkansas prepares one of the country’s most expansive school-voucher programs, its attorney general is seeking to end decades-old legal settlements meant to end racial segregation, arguing that they are outdated and interfere with state policies favoring school choice."

California -

• What to Know About California’s Reparations Efforts (New York Times, May 9) - "The nine-member panel spent months conducting research and holding listening sessions from the Bay Area to San Diego. And in its final report...the panel recommended a sweeping statewide reparations program, including a formal apology to Black residents and billions of dollars in payments. Though California never officially allowed slavery within its borders, discriminatory practices like redlining and school segregation held Black Californians back for generations."
• Related: Mini-Documentary: California’s Reparations Task Force on the Foundation for Lasting Reparative Justice

Connecticut -

• 5 Connecticut elementary schools fail racial diversity requirement (WSHU, May 15) - "Five Connecticut elementary schools failed to meet the state’s racial diversity requirement this school year. Some have been unbalanced for years, according to a state Department of Education report."

Georgia -

• Atlanta mom says local school designates certain classrooms as off-limits to Black students: lawsuit (Raw Story, May 25) - "A federal civil rights office will investigate a school segregation complaint filed by an Atlanta parent against her daughter's school district."

Minnesota -

• MN school segregation lawsuit returns to Supreme Court (Pioneer Press, May 2) - "The plaintiffs in Cruz-Guzman v. State of Minnesota argue that school segregation in the Twin Cities metro violates the education clause of the state’s constitution, even if lawmakers did not intentionally cause the segregation."
• Related: Minnesota Supreme Court hears oral arguments in school segregation case; Minnesota school segregation lawsuit to get another day in court: 5 things to know about the case; Minnesota Supreme Court takes Cruz-Guzman case on the road at Richfield High; Minnesota Supreme Court Takes School Desegregation Case to the Kids

New York -

• Not a thing of the past: How a history of racial residential segregation in Buffalo led to the Tops shooting (WBFO, May 10) - "Racism and segregation are two of the major factors which led to the tragedy of the Tops shooting on May 14 on Buffalo’s East Side. Despite the shooter hailing from outside of Western New York—he was able to carry out his racist attack specifically because he knew where the majority of African Americans were located in the city."

North Carolina -

• Universal private school voucher bill passes NC House. Expanded choice or segregation? (News Observer, May 17) - "A plan to allow every North Carolina family to request taxpayer funding to attend a private school was approved by the state House... Multiple Democratic lawmakers tied the expansion of the Opportunity Scholarship program to past efforts to fight integration of public schools."

Texas -

• Texas almost approved a school voucher program in the 1950s – to avoid desegregation (Texas Public Radio, May 12) - "[L]awmakers in Texas have made school vouchers a priority during the most recent legislative session, and their prize bill will likely cross a pivotal hurdle next week....Controversial since their inception, school vouchers have been around in the U.S. since at least the 1950s, when Southern states used them as a tool to circumvent desegregation."

Virginia -

• Virginian requests federal funding for state Brown v. Board of Education Scholarship Fund (Virginia Mercury, May 11) - "The Virginia man who first proposed the creation of a state education fund to help former Black students denied an education under Massive Resistance is asking the federal government for $1 million to support it. Virginia’s Brown v. Board of Education Scholarship Fund was created in 2004 and expanded during the 2023 legislative session."

NCSD MEMBERSHIP

NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund * Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund  American Civil Liberties Union * Poverty & Race Research Action Council * Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law * Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund * Magnet Schools of America * One Nation Indivisible * Southern Poverty Law Center * Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard Law School * Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles at UCLA * Campaign for Educational Equity, Teachers College, Columbia University * University of North Carolina Center for Civil Rights * Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at the Ohio State University * The Othering & Belonging Institute * Education Rights Center, Howard University School of Law * Institute on Metropolitan Opportunity at the University of Minnesota Law School * Education Law Center * New York Appleseed * Sheff Movement Coalition * Voluntary Interdistrict Choice Corporation * ERASE Racism * Chicago Lawyers' Committee * Empire Justice Center * IntegrateNYC * Intercultural Development Research Association * Reimagining Integration: The Diverse and Equitable Schools Project at the Harvard Graduate School of Education * Institute for Social Progress at Wayne County Community College District * Center on Law in Metropolitan Equity at Rutgers Law School * Equity Assistance Center (Region II) at Touro College * IntegratedSchools.org * The Office of Transformation and Innovation at the Dallas Independent School District * Live Baltimore * Maryland Equity Project * Center for Education and Civil Rights * National Center for Montessori in the Public Sector * The Center for Diversity and Equality in Education at Rutgers University * Being Black at School * UnifiEd * The Sillerman Center for the Advancement of Philanthropy * Public Advocacy for Kids * The Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools * The School Desegregation Notebook * Fair Housing Justice Center, Inc. * Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity, Inc. (METCO) * Learn Together, Live Together * Beloved Community * Learning Policy Center * Public School Forum of North Carolina * The Bell * North Carolina Justice Center * The Bridges Collaborative at The Century Foundation * South Side Early Learning * Oneonta For Equality * NestQuest * Metis Associates