Representing the American Civil Rights Foundation, the Pacific Legal Foundation has just filed two lawsuits to prevent the Los Angeles Unified School District “from using race to determine where teachers teach and students attend school” in defiance of Proposition 209.
The first lawsuit charges the district with practicing racial discrimination and preferences in teacher-placement decisions in direct defiance of Proposition 209. Specifically, PLF says the district’s “Teacher Integration Transfer Program” unconstitutionally requires the race of a teacher to be considered for any decision about a teacher’s assignment, displacement, or transfer. Under the program, the percentage of minority teachers at any K-12 school or magnet school must be made to replicate, within a certain range — up to 15 percentage points below or 25 percentage points above — the district wide ratio of minority to nonminority teaching staff.
In other words, when the school district is deciding whether a teacher will be allowed to transfer to a particular school, the teacher’s race is the threshold consideration. If a particular school needs more white teachers to meet the racial “balance” formula, a white applicant would receive a racial preference for transferring to that school, while a minority applicant would be denied — regardless of the teacher’s seniority or qualifications.
The second lawsuit challenges two unconstitutionally race-based student programs: the district’s Magnet Program and Permits with Transportation Program. The district administers the Magnet Program to provide selected students in grades K-12 with an educational program that best fits the interests and needs of individual students. However, students are accepted to any given Magnet Program based on the district objective of maintaining racial or ethnic “balance” at each school.
Accordingly, when a student submits an application for a Magnet Program, that student must self-identify with one of seven prescribed races or ethnicities. If the student declines to state a specific race — or if the student selects the “multiracial/multiethnic” category — the student will be disqualified and the application will not be processed. If the student identifies a specific race or ethnicity, the district will consider that student for the program of his or her choice, but the primary factor determining if the student is selected is whether the student’s race or ethnicity helps the Magnet Program achieve racial or ethnic balance.
Now, if President Bush had only picked Sharon Browne, the principal attorney for PLF, for the Supremes….
It is nice to know that Jim Crow lives on in the blue state, “Progressive” part of the US. To insist that a student tells you his race or you will punish the student is below disgusting.
Welcome to reality folks, this race preferential business has been going on for a long time here in California.I am not saying this sort of thing is a sneak around Prop. 209 , effectively it is though. The creation of magnet schools was a direct result of thetremendous brouhaha over school busing in the early 80’s. The misguided beaurucrats over there in the Los Angeles Unified School District thought that by creating magnet schools they could prevent the decline of whites in the public schools. Each race was allocated a percentage of students in every magnet school. We all know that qoutas do not bring in the largest group of the most qualified students..So a magnet school like Francisco Bravo Medical Magnet must have an x number of blacks, an X number of whites, an x number of Mexicans and an x number of Asians. They created an Orwellian Animal Farm basically. It was not like Lowell or Stuyvesant or Bronx Science where students were admitted because of an exam. It might have identified blacks and Hispanic students that would be eligible for racial preference admissions for the UC system and the Ivies and other private schools but it clearly showed that many of these blacks or Mexicans were still academically inferior to their Asian counterparts.
Jim Crow Redux
Despite a California law that prohibits sex and skin color preferences in public hiring and admissions, socialist bureaucrats in the Los Angeles Unified School District believe they’re exempt. Plenty of precedent for that belief.
Once upon a t…
Misprint.
John, the article, and your recitation of it, contains an inaccuracy. It says the Pacific Legal Foundation represented “the American Civil Rights Foundation.” I’m pretty sure that it meant to say American Civil Rights Coalition (or “Institute”, which is the 501c3 version, whereas the “Coalition” is the 501c4)- the groups headed by Ward Connerly.
Mr. Zarko is incorrect. I am an attorney on these cases, and we represent the American Civil Rights FOUNDATION — a nonprofit membership organization consisting of individuals seeking to enforce the civil rights laws, like Proposition 209.
These are not blacks or whites or hispanics, these are children. They should all be treated equally, regardless of race.
To penalize children of one race, because they apply in greater numbers than those of another race is unfair, and I hope will be found illegal. All should be given an equal chance to enter these schools.
If your child is not accepted into one of these schools, the LAUSD sends you a letter that tells you they’re sorry, but your child was not accepted into the Magnet school in the “lottery” for the space. It’s anything but.