Date: Fri 12-Jul-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: STEVEB

Quick Words:

schools-Sheff-O'Neill-court

Full Text:

Effect Of Desegregation Ruling On Newtown Unclear

B Y S TEVE B IGHAM

How will Tuesday's state Supreme Court decision on the Sheff vs O'Neill case

affect Newtown students and schools?

It all depends on the lead taken by Gov John G. Rowland and on whether or not

the state legislature decides to reorganize school districts, Superintendent

of Schools John R. Reed commented Wednesday, still leafing through the lengthy

court ruling.

In a precedent-setting decision, the judges struck down the state's system of

municipal-based school districts, finding Hartford public schools to be

segregated because whites often move to the suburbs while minorities remain in

the inner-city, deprived of equal educational opportunities. The decision also

stated that the situation was not brought about by any state or local

statutes.

"The public elementary and high school students in Hartford suffer daily from

the devastating effects that racial and ethnic isolation, as well as poverty,

have had on their education," Chief Justice Ellen Ash Peters wrote in the 4-3

decision.

Though unsure of the direction the state will take, Dr Reed believes the state

would be well served to provide more equal education opportunities to its

young people and said reconfiguring of the districts was a possibility.

However, because Danbury is more diversified than cities like Hartford,

Bridgeport and New Haven, he doesn't see the decision having an effect on this

area any time soon.

"We have this problem because people are divided," he noted. "It's a problem

because we've had a long history of people having difficulty reaching out to

those with different racial backgrounds."

Board of Education Chairman Herb Rosenthal said the decision by the court was

vague in its direction to the legislature, making it difficult to tell what

will happen.

The court stopped short of ordering what steps must be taken to fix the racial

isolation of Hartford schoolchildren, leaving the decision to the legislature

and governor.

Gov. John G. Rowland and Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said they were

opposed to using forced busing as a solution. Mr Blumenthal also said that

municipalities should continue governing schools, and that he would do

everything possible to avoid massive reassignment of students.

Gov Rowland promised to immediately convene a meeting of legislative leaders

to determine how to proceed.

"It has taken seven years for this case to make its way through the courts,"

he said. "The problem of school segregation in our urban areas is a very

complicated problem with deep-running social and economic causes. I do not

expect any quick answers and I cannot predict what the remedies will be."

The case, based on a 1989 lawsuit brought by 17 pupils, was one of just a few

active ones in the nation seeking to integrate schools across district lines,

and the first to test whether segregated schools are illegal under the state

Constitution.

The lawsuit contended that minority students in the city receive illegally

inferior schooling despite the constitution's guarantee of equal educational

opportunity. It sought a court order linking Hartford schools with

overwhelmingly white suburban schools.

As Mr Rosenthal points out, Newtown is participating with other area schools

in an effort to establish a magnet school, a proposed regional career training

center which received a $37,921 grant from the state on Monday.

"The state court's action makes this effort (to establish a magnet school)

more important," he noted. "The legislature is more likely to fund these types

of efforts at diversity. Magnet schools are a way of achieving diversity

voluntarily."

As for forced busing, Dr Reed felt that while parents in the suburbs will be

opposed to having their children transported into another district, the same

would likely hold true of parents in the inner city.

"A massive uprooting of kids - I don't know if that's ever proven to work well

in the past," he said.

As for what the state can expect in the future, Dr Reed predicted much of it

would depend on whether Gov Rowland wishes to forget about public opinion.

"Taking a lead on this issue could have some public risk," he said. "We know

what he's against (forced busing), but we're not sure what he's for."

More than 95 percent of Hartford's 24,000 students are minorities, and most

are from poor families. In most of the suburbs in the 22-town region around

Hartford, minorities make up less than 10 percent of the student population.

In a sharply worded dissent, Justice David Borden said the implication of the

majority's reasoning is that "virtually every school district in the state is

now either unconstitutional or constitutionally suspect."

The dissent also warned that lawmakers were being given a nearly impossible

task because the court did not give them any principles to follow.

The US Supreme Court had held that only segregation brought about by

intentional state action violates the US Constitution. The state court said it

chose not to follow the federal precedent.

(Associated Press reports were used in this story.)