Opinion ID: 764702
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Full and Satisfactory Compliance

Text: 109 A school district claiming full and satisfactory compliance in the area of student assignments must demonstrate that it has eliminated the effects of de jure segregation in the area of student assignments to the extent practicable. One vestige of de jure segregation in the area of student assignments is the existence of racially identifiable schools. When such schools exist, a school district must establish that the current racial imbalance was attributable to independent factors and not traceable to school board action. See id. at 494. Therefore, for the defendants to succeed in their motion for unitary status with respect to student assignments, they must establish that the Cleveland Board of Education has eliminated racial segregation to the extent practicable and that the existence of any racially identifiable schools is not traceable to its actions. See Columbus Bd. of Educ. v. Penick, 443 U.S. 449, 465 n. 13 (1979). 110 In Freeman, the Court, addressing this factor, agreed with the district court's finding that the Dekalb County School System had demonstrated full compliance in the area of student assignments because it had achieved desegregation to the extent practicable. Though there were racially identifiable schools in the district, the existence of those schools was not traceable to school board action. See 503 U.S. at 495. Rather, resegregation of the system was attributable to demographic changes that had taken place in Dekalb County over a twenty-year period. See id. at 494. Because the current resegregation in Dekalb County was the result of demographic shifts rather than school board policy, the school district was under no duty to remedy the resegregation. See id. at 495. 111 In this case, the defendants' claim that Freeman supports the declaration of partial unitary status because segregation had been eliminated to the extent practicable and that the increase in the number of one-race schools was attributable to demographic shifts and parents' individual choices rather than Cleveland Board of Education action. As evidence that the school district was desegregated and current racial imbalances were not traceable to school board action in any proximate way, the defendants point to a 1991 Office of School Monitoring and Community Relations (OSMCR) 9 Report stating that the Cleveland Board of Education had complied in large part with the district court's orders with respect to student assignments and that no evidence suggested that the Cleveland Board of Education was responsible for the racially identifiable schools existing at that time. 10 JA at 791. 112 For the sake of argument, even if the Cleveland schools were desegrated at the time of the OSMCR Report in 1991, the Supreme Court has made clear that unitary status in the area of student assignment cannot be hinged on the attainment of such status for a brief moment. See Freeman, 503 U.S. at 478. More important, regardless of whether the Cleveland school district was desegregated in 1991, the current racial imbalance existing in the district is traceable to Cleveland Board of Education action. The increase in the number of racially identifiable schools is the result of a school board plan permitting parents to choose segregated schools for their children to attend rather than adhering to the 15% requirement. This is distinguishable from the facts of Freeman, in which parents chose to move to a different part of the city so that their children could attend certain schools and, as a result of those residential choices, schools then became racially identifiable. In Cleveland, by contrast, the Cleveland Board of Education made it possible for schools to become racially identifiable by directly offering parents a segregated choice. 11 Against the background of former state sponsorship of one-race schools, any state-sponsored plan that allows for the persistence of racially identifiable schools perpetuates the message of racial inferiority associated with segregation. See Dowell, 498 U.S. at 261 (Marshall, J., dissenting). Because the choices exercised by the parents in Cleveland are done so in the context of a state-sponsored plan which offers a segregated schooling choice, it is indisputable that the increase in the number of racially identifiable schools since implementation of the parental choice plan is traceable to Cleveland Board of Education action. 12 113 Neither the district court, nor the majority for that matter, addresses whether the allowance of parental choice pursuant to Vision 21 is tantamount to state action. Instead, both base their analyses on a comparison of the number of racially identifiable schools in the Dekalb County School System and the number of racially identifiable schools now existing in Cleveland. Because racially identifiable schools in Dekalb County significantly outnumber those existing in Cleveland, the majority reasons that because the Supreme Court found that Dekalb County was unitary, then surely Cleveland is as well. This reasoning ignores the fundamental analysis required by consideration of the three factors articulated in Freeman. Such an analysis should not be based on comparison of numbers with other districts, but on whether a specific district has been in full and satisfactory compliance with respect to student assignments and the school board's contribution to racially identifiable schools. Contrary to the district court's opinion, Freeman did not establish any benchmarks for allowable percentages of racially identifiable schools. Following this faulty reasoning to its logical conclusion, the issue of whether schools are unitary with respect to student assignments would be determined simply by comparing the number of racially identifiable schools in that district with those existing in Dekalb County. Such an analysis conflicts with more than forty years of school desegregation case law. 114 Furthermore, contrary to the defendants' assertions, there is no evidence in the record suggesting that the increase in racially identifiable schools is attributable to demographic factors. At the time the desegregation order was entered, the West Side of Cleveland was predominantly white and the East Side was predominantly black. That has not changed since this case was filed more than twenty years ago, a fact that the Cleveland Board of Education's senior officials have acknowledged. Since implementation of Vision 21's parental choice plan, Cleveland schools have experienced rapid segregation that mirrors the residential segregation of the city. Schools that are more than 90% black are located on the East Side of Cleveland, while schools that are predominantly white are located on the West Side. Although the defendants cite changing demographics as a basis for relinquishing supervision, they, as well as the majority and district court, fail to identify such changing demographic factors. Their failure to do so is understandable given that there were no significant changes in demographics, a fact readily acknowledged by the Cleveland Board of Education. 115 Had the majority engaged in an analysis of the current racial imbalance existing in Cleveland, it would have reached the inescapable conclusion that the increase in the number of racially identifiable schools is attributable to Cleveland Board of Education action. Unlike in Freeman, demographic changes did not play a role in the current racial imbalance existing in Cleveland public schools. Accordingly, the record does not support a finding that there has been full and satisfactory compliance with respect to student assignments. It is a hollow remedy indeed where 'after supposed desegregation the schools remained segregated in fact.'  Milliken v. Bradley, 418 U.S. 717, 808, 94 S.Ct. 3112, 41 L.Ed.2d 1069 (1974) (Marshall, J., dissenting).