Opinion ID: 495020
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Vestiges of Segregation

Text: 18 Having determined that the burden of proof properly shifted back to the plaintiffs because RPS is now a unified school system, we can examine the vestiges of segregation that allegedly remain. The School Board contends that these vestiges consist of racial isolation and educational deprivation. 19 Indisputably, the schools in RPS are racially isolated. Black students made up 86.4 percent of the student body in 1984, and in many schools the percentage of black students exceeds 90 percent. The School Board seeks funding from the state for remedial and compensatory programs that will help students in RPS overcome the injuries they suffer by virtue of being in these racially isolated schools. 20 The court concluded that the School Board failed to prove that this racial isolation was the result of state action, and we find no error in this decision. The argument that the failure of the State to refuse accreditation to the private schools operating in Richmond without considering whether such schools maintained discriminatory admission practices or were being used as a haven for those persons seeking to avoid desegregation and its selecting as the state-supported model school the Varina High School rather than a high school in RPS represented state action reinforcing and perpetuating segregation in the RPS system is effectively answered by the district court. We emphasize in this connection that the district judge has presided over this litigation for many, many years and has always exhibited great sensitivity to the rights of minority students. Given his intimacy with this case, with the racial dynamics within the City of Richmond and his demonstrated sensitivity to the rights of the minority students, we give his findings and conclusion great deference. 21 As for educational deprivation, the School Board primarily contends that because the parents of many current RPS students were educated in segregated schools, these parents have difficulty providing education-related support to their children. As we stated supra, the record shows that RPS students have greatly improved their performance since the implementation of the desegregation plan. To the extent that disparities still exist between RPS and the state average, we find no error in the court's conclusion that these disparities were caused by the high incidence of poverty in RPS and the ineffective educational philosophy that was followed for some time in the district. 3 22 The School Board protests that in reaching its decision the court improperly limited its inquiry to deficiencies that allegedly exist within RPS itself, and refused to consider the indirect effects that prior school segregation may have had no current RPS students. We find that this limitation was proper. A state-mandated dual school system admittedly infects society as a whole. It inflicts poverty and many other ills on the students who receive an inferior education, and its effects last at least through those students' lifetimes. But a school desegregation plan cannot remedy these general societal ills, even when they indirectly affect current students. As the Court stated in Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, 402 U.S. 1, 22, 91 S.Ct. 1267, 1279, 28 L.Ed.2d 554 (1971), One vehicle can carry only a limited amount of baggage. Educational deficiencies that result from problems such as poverty are best remedied by programs directed toward eliminating poverty, not by indirect solutions through school programs.