Evans is leading the district effort to devise a new desegregation plan that could remove Hillsborough from federal supervision under a 1971 court order. Hispanics were not considered a factor when the order decreed students would be classified either black or white. We don't have any history of ever having segregated a school for the Hispanic population. Segregation means something was done with intent,'' said lawyer Tom Gonzalez. Gary Orfield, who leads The Civil Rights Project at Harvard University, disagreed.
Attorneys always say stuff like that.
It does matter. Black enrollment rose 22 percent during that time, while white enrollment decreased by 16 percent. Hillsborough's 1971 order concluded the district should try to make each school reflect the racial balance of the county, which then was about 80 percent white and 20 percent black. But while some schools still come close to that figure, ethnic enrollment makes ratios deceiving. It's unknown whether U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Kovachevich, who now presides over the longstanding court case, even will consider how Hispanics skew the figures.