Justice
School Secession Is Segregation
As more districts splinter along lines of race and income, judicial processes meant to protect the fair distribution of educational resources are failing, a new report finds.
Back in April, the white, middle-class Alabama city of Gardendale, a suburb of Birmingham, received preliminary approval to saw itself off from its poorer, largely black county school district. It was a move that, as my colleague Mimi Kirk reported, telegraphed clear messages of racial inadequacy that “assail the dignity of black schoolchildren,” according to Madeline Haikal, the district court judge who presided over Gardendale’s secession bid.
The judge found that the school districts would become deeply segregated if permitted to split apart—and further, that race was clearly motivating the bid to secede. But she supported it anyway, out of fear that those very children would suffer retaliation if she blocked it.