Opinion ID: 722543
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Areas of Concern to the District Court and Allocations

Text: 112 of the Burden of Proof 113 Aside from its examination of the four school districts' compliance with the Green factors and the ancillary relief measures, the district court also acknowledged that certain performance disparities persist in the New Castle County schools--most notably in the Red Clay district. These performance disparities include student achievement, special education, and dropout rates, and are not disputed here. However, because these disparities are not among the vestiges enumerated either in Green or in the ancillary relief order, we must determine, first, whether these disparities actually are vestiges of de jure segregation, and if so, whether the school districts have in good faith eliminated them to the extent practicable. Having considered the taxonomy of disparities proffered by Appellant and reviewed the record and pertinent legal precepts, we hold that Appellant properly was allocated the burden to prove that the disparities were vestiges, and that the Appellant failed to meet this burden. 114 The Court has made plain that certain disparities necessarily are vestiges of de jure segregation. Identifying what would become known as the Green factors, the Court directed school boards to propose plans designed to disestablish state-imposed segregation in every facet of school operations--faculty, staff, transportation, extracurricular activities and facilities. Green, 391 U.S. at 435, 88 S.Ct. at 1693. Accordingly, and as the relevant cases cited by Appellant demonstrate, the Court consistently has turned to the Green factors to determin[e] whether a dual school system has been disestablished. Columbus Board of Education v. Penick, 443 U.S. 449, 458-61, 99 S.Ct. 2941, 2947-48, 61 L.Ed.2d 666 (1979) (Green factors). See also Davis v. Board of Sch. Comm'rs of Mobile County, 402 U.S. 33, 37, 91 S.Ct. 1289, 1292, 28 L.Ed.2d 577 (1971) (pupil assignment); Dayton Bd. of Educ. v. Brinkman, 443 U.S. 526, 538, 99 S.Ct. 2971, 2979, 61 L.Ed.2d 720 (1979) (pupil assignment and school construction). Indeed, the Green factors have become per se vestiges of de jure segregation--and therefore the focal point for determining unitary status. Nevertheless, the performance disparities enumerated by Appellant are not among these factors. 115 Still, the Green factors are not the only disparities that may be classified as vestiges of de jure segregation. Depending on the circumstances of a particular case, the trial court still may exercise discretion to consider other factors. Freeman, 503 U.S. at 492-93, 112 S.Ct. at 1446-47. The circumstances of the instant case prompted the district court, in 1978, to order eight ancillary remedial measures. As with the Green factors, we have reviewed the districts' compliance with that order and conclude that there was a good faith effort to eliminate the vestiges identified therein to the extent practicable. Again, however, the performance disparities urged here were not identified among these vestiges of de jure segregation. 116 We emphasize that here we are not discussing the burden of proving compliance with the Green factors or the 1978 Order, as to which the school districts acknowledge bearing the evidentiary burden. Our discussion here, and our allocation of the burden of proof to Appellant, is limited to the issue of proving that the identified performance disparities are vestiges of de jure segregation. 117 Because the performance disparities claimed by Appellant are not among (or even similar to) the Green factors or the vestiges identified in the 1978 Order, we will not simply presume--as Appellant urges us to do--that these are vestiges of de jure segregation. Appellant offers no persuasive authority for establishing a causal link between present achievement disparities and past de jure segregation. In fact, all but one of the cases relied on by Appellant on this point are irrelevant, because they address only Green-type factors; the State Board does not dispute that it carried the burden of proving good faith efforts to eliminate (to the extent practicable) such vestiges of de jure segregation. 118 Appellant thus can rely solely on Vaughns by Vaughns v. Bd. of Educ. of Prince George's County, 758 F.2d 983, 990-91 (4th Cir.1985), which, upon our review, supports the district court. In Vaughns, because the school district was not unitary with respect to the Green factor of student assignment, id. at 990-91, the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held that the plaintiffs were entitled to a presumption that disparities in special education and gifted and talented programs arose from prior segregation. More important, the Vaughns court distinguished a decision from a sister circuit because the burden shifted to [Appellants] in that case only because the school system had achieved unitary status with regard to student assignment. Vaughns, 758 F.2d at 991. 119 Here, however, the districts have been unitary as to school assignments since the 1978 order. Had the Vaughns school district satisfied the Green factors as have the Delaware districts before us, the Vaughns plaintiffs would have had to prove that performance disparities resulted from de jure segregation. The Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit so held in two subsequent cases. See Riddick by Riddick v. School Bd. of City of Norfolk, 784 F.2d 521, 534 (4th Cir.), cert. denied, 479 U.S. 938, 107 S.Ct. 420, 93 L.Ed.2d 370 (1986); School Bd. of the City of Richmond, Va. v. Baliles, 829 F.2d 1308, 1312 (4th Cir.1987). The same result should obtain here. 120 Further, we must respect the Court's teaching that a school board is entitled to a rather precise statement of its obligations under a desegregation decree and to a like statement from the court for when such a decree is to be terminated or dissolved. Dowell, 498 U.S. at 246, 111 S.Ct. at 636 (citing Pasadena City Bd. of Educ. v. Spangler, 427 U.S. 424, 96 S.Ct. 2697, 49 L.Ed.2d 599 (1976)). Because we are reluctant to impose any unstated obligation on the school boards, we allocate the burden to prove any additional violation to the Appellant. See Jenkins, --- U.S. at ---- - ----, 115 S.Ct. at 2055-56 (to require a remedy, inferior student achievement must be proven to have resulted from de jure segregation); see also Keyes v. School Dist. No. 1, 902 F.Supp. 1274, 1282 (D.Colo.1995) (The Court's opinion in ... Jenkins ... defeats the plaintiffs' call for compelling additional action to investigate and redress racial disparities in student achievement ... [when the] court has never made any findings that such differences are the result of discrimination by the District). 41 121 In light of the foregoing discussion, we conclude that Appellant failed to carry its burden. The district court's finding that persistent student performance disparities were caused by socioeconomic factors is supported by the record. Coalition, 901 F.Supp. at 818-19. The district court cited various demographic data from the 1990 U.S. Census and the 1992 Vital Statistics Report of Delaware that illustrate a black/white gap in the geographic area contained in the four school districts, and in New Castle County generally, as to socioeconomic conditions. 42 The record establishes that Blacks in the desegregation area are in an inferior position economically to whites, and [that] that gap is wider in New Castle County than it is in the nation as a whole. Coalition, 901 F.Supp. at 818. 122 Further, the record supports a causal link between these socioeconomic factors and student achievement across the four districts: There is consistency between the gap in socioeconomic status with the gap in achievement, with Brandywine statistics demonstrating the greatest disparity in both areas, Colonial the least disparity. Id. With such support in the record, these findings cannot be clearly erroneous. Anchoring its determination on these unfortunate, but uncontroverted, socioeconomic factors, the court found, inter alia, that [b]ecause the environment outside school is so strong, cumulative, and varied, schools cannot overcome such environmental/differences [sic] among children. Id. at 819. We agree. 123 Accordingly, we affirm the district court's allocation of the burden of proof and its determination that persistent performance disparities are not vestiges of de jure segregation.