Opinion ID: 580879
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Eight Constituent Districts

Text: 9 The obligation of a school district that is operating one-race schools is to take whatever steps might be necessary to convert to a unitary system in which racial discrimination would be eliminated root and branch. Green v. County Sch. Bd., 391 U.S. 430, 437-38, 88 S.Ct. 1689, 1693-94, 20 L.Ed.2d 716 (1968); see Charleston County, 738 F.Supp. at 1518-19. Appellants admit that, although one-race schools exist in some of the constituent districts, each of the constituent district boards of trustees has done everything within its power to desegregate the schools within each district and that each of the eight constituent districts is operating unitary schools. 10 A separate and autonomous school district may not be required to help remedy existing segregation occurring in another district. Milliken v. Bradley, 418 U.S. 717, 94 S.Ct. 3112, 41 L.Ed.2d 1069 (1974). Appellants claim that Milliken is inapplicable to the present action because in 1967, the eight constituent districts lost their independent identity and were consolidated into a single district--the CCSD. In turn, the appellants argue, the CCSD assumed the affirmative obligation to employ all feasible measures within its power to desegregate all schools within the CCSD. As stated by the government in its brief, the essence of appellant's argument is quite simple: If there is a single school district in Charleston, then further desegregation is required; if there are eight separate school districts in Charleston, then no further desegregation is required. 11 Appellants' contention that there are current racial disparities within the CCSD is premised upon evaluating the racial composition of individual schools' student populations in relation to the total student enrollment in the CCSD. When so evaluated, appellants argue, the CCSD contains a disproportionate number of black and white schools. The district court ruled, however, that the racial makeup of student enrollment and teacher assignment should not be evaluated from the perspective of the CCSD as a whole, but from the racial makeup of the constituent district in which the school is located: 12 In the instant case, Charleston County was divided into eight school districts during the time that the dual system was maintained, and there is nothing unconstitutional about treating it as eight school districts for the purpose of dismantling that system. No attempt has been made to divide it into smaller districts which would have been more segregated if the prior system had been preserved. Charleston County properly maintained the same districts for the purpose of school attendance and faculty assignments [as existed when the duty to desegregate was undertaken]. 13 Charleston County, 738 F.Supp. at 1527. 14 We find nothing improper in this evaluation. Until at least 1963, schools in Charleston County operated under a dual system within each of the eight districts. When the duty to desegregate the schools within the county was assumed, that duty was upon the several districts. Passage of Act 340 in 1967 simply continued in place the same school districts with precisely the same powers and territorial authority over student and teacher assignment as had existed since 1951. The duty to desegregate continued in each of those districts as well. 15 This analysis has support in Supreme Court precedent. Prior to Milliken v. Bradley, the Supreme Court cases on the subject had only addressed school desegregation violations and remedies within the context of a single school district. Id. at 745, 94 S.Ct. at 3127. In Milliken, however, the Court for the first time considered the appropriateness of an interdistrict court ordered desegregation plan as a remedy for an intradistrict segregation violation. In striking down the interdistrict plan, the Court said that: 16 [T]he scope of the remedy is determined by the nature and extent of the constitutional violation. (citation omitted). Before the boundaries of separate and autonomous school districts may be set aside by ... imposing a cross-district remedy, it must first be shown that there has been a constitutional violation within one district that produces a significant segregative effect in another district. Specifically, it must be shown that racially discriminatory acts ... of a single school district have been a substantial cause of interdistrict segregation. 17 Id. 94 S.Ct. at 3127. In the present case, appellants concede (1) that there are no existing intradistrict constitutional violations; (2) that each constituent district is operating unitary schools; and (3) that all eight constituent districts are as desegregated as possible. Thus, it appears that no need for an interdistrict remedy exists. 18 But school district lines are not sacrosanct. An interdistrict remedy might be in order where the racially discriminatory acts of one or more school districts cause racial segregation in another district, or where district lines have been deliberately drawn on the basis of race. Id. Appellants argued in the district court that the 1951 establishment of the district lines was racially motivated. The district court found, however, no reasonable evidence to support this contention. Charleston County, 738 F.Supp. at 1535. This factual determination by the district court is not clearly erroneous. Given the status of state law in 1951, then presumed to be constitutional, it is quite possible that certain legislators were motivated in many of their actions by a desire to separate the races. However, the fact that the district lines follow clear geographic and riparian boundaries unique to Charleston County indicates that there were other controlling factors motivating the General Assembly. The fact that South Carolina does not keep records of its legislative history makes it impossible to determine what exactly motivated the 1951 action. See Charleston County, 738 F.Supp. at 1526. In any event, reliance upon legislators' statements and candidate speeches in divining the intent of a legislative body is a step to be taken cautiously and the statements of individual legislators should not be given controlling effect. See Piper v. Chris-Craft Ind., Inc., 430 U.S. 1, 26, 97 S.Ct. 926, 941, 51 L.Ed.2d 124 (1977); Brock v. Pierce County, 476 U.S. 253, 263, 106 S.Ct. 1834, 1840-41, 90 L.Ed.2d 248 (1986); Chrysler Corp. v. Brown, 441 U.S. 281, 311, 99 S.Ct. 1705, 1722, 60 L.Ed.2d 208 (1979). 19 Thus, appellants' claim is simply that there is only one school district in Charleston County--the CCSD--and that the eight constituent districts are merely shams. On this issue, the district court treated the constituent districts as separate political entities and the powers vested in them as important, separate and apart from the responsibilities of the CCSD. See Charleston County, 738 F.Supp. at 1525. This finding is not clearly erroneous. The local determination of school attendance zones and student discipline is a tradition as rich as the neighborhood school itself. No single tradition in public education is more deeply rooted than local control over the operation of schools; local autonomy has long been thought essential both to the maintenance of community concern and support for public schools and to [the] quality of the educational process. Milliken, 418 U.S. at 741-42, 94 S.Ct. at 3125-26; see Wright v. Council of Emporia, 407 U.S. 451, 469, 92 S.Ct. 2196, 2206, 33 L.Ed.2d 51 (1972); San Antonio Independent Sch. Dist. v. Rodriguez, 411 U.S. 1, 50, 93 S.Ct. 1278, 1305, 36 L.Ed.2d 16 (1973). 20 The inquiry of whether the schools of Charleston County are in compliance with their affirmative duty to eliminate all vestiges of dual schooling is focused on each constituent district. Each constituent district has the authority to assign pupils to a particular school. Appellants argue that creation of the CCSD to oversee certain administrative functions and tax revenue distribution resulted in the consolidation of the entire county into one single district. Were this the case, each state would be classified as one district. State governments fulfill crucial administrative roles over their schools. In the present case, the State defines what may comprise a school district, see S.C.CODE ANN. § 50-1-160 (1990); sets standards for local school boards and boards of trustees, see id. §§ 59-1-340, 59-1-350; and governs the disbursement of state funds to the districts, see id. § 59-20-40. If existing districts remain undisturbed, the creation of additional powers in state government or in administrative units such as the CCSD does not merge the existing districts into a new large district. There is no precedent for such a drastic holding: the Supreme Court has specifically rejected this argument when made in favor of an interdistrict desegregation order. See Milliken, 418 U.S. at 749, 94 S.Ct. at 3129 (Accepting arguendo the derivative responsibility of the State for the actions of a political subdivision of the State causing segregation does not lead to the conclusion that an interdistrict remedy is appropriate). 21 Appellants' criticism is not with what Act 340 did change, but with what it did not change. By leaving the power to assign and transfer students with the constituent districts, the General Assembly, in essence, took no action; it merely maintained the status quo. By undertaking to eradicate unequal tax bases in Charleston County, see note 1, supra, the General Assembly did not assume a duty to consolidate authority over teacher and pupil assignment and transfer. By taking no action to dismantle the eight districts for purposes of student and teacher assignments, it does not follow that the General Assembly acted with discriminatory intent. 22 Under appellants' argument, no action to equalize the distribution of tax revenues could be undertaken unless, at the same time, district lines for purposes of school assignment were changed. A statute is not constitutionally invalid because it might have gone further than it did. See Goesaert v. Cleary, 335 U.S. 464, 467, 69 S.Ct. 198, 199, 93 L.Ed. 163 (1948). Of course the State could have consolidated Charleston County schools for purposes of assignment had it so desired, but it was under no obligation to do so. It is clear that the rescission of school board action which a school board is under no duty to promulgate in the first place is not a constitutional violation. See Dayton Bd. of Educ. v. Brinkman, 433 U.S. 406, 414, 97 S.Ct. 2766, 2772, 53 L.Ed.2d 851 (1977). Likewise, the fact that the General Assembly did not consolidate the eight school districts for purposes of assignment, which it was under no constitutional obligation to do, is not an Equal Protection violation. Appellants' argument would force the State into the Hobson's choice between taking no action at all or acting to remedy problems within its sphere of influence. The Equal Protection clause requires no such choice. 23 The district court rulings that the eight constituent districts are separate and distinct and that Act 340 was not enacted with discriminatory intent are AFFIRMED. Because all parties concede that each of the eight constituent districts is currently operating unitary schools, no further duty to desegregate exists.