Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, January 9, 1995 TAG: 9501100036
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Wednesday in the case, which is seen by civil-rights attorneys as a crucial moment in the decades-long struggle for fully desegregated schools.
The case could prove pivotal for other school districts that seek to end federal court supervision of desegregation plans. The high court could use the case to clarify the conditions under which such decrees would be changed or lifted altogether.
The American Civil Liberties Union said Missouri seeks a ruling tantamount to a ``radical revision of existing law'' and urged the justices not to side with the state.
``This court would be signaling that its determination to eliminate all of the evils of purposeful race discrimination in this country has ended,'' ACLU attorney Christopher Hansen said in court papers.
Schools were racially segregated by law in Missouri until the mid-1950s, but even after the laws were repealed, segregation persisted. Ruling in 1984 in a lawsuit filed on behalf of black children, U.S. District Judge Russell G. Clark found segregation had existed in the Kansas City schools from the end of the Civil War in 1865 onward.
Clark decided against a forced busing plan, opting instead for substantial improvements in the 37,000-student Kansas City, Mo., school district. They included higher teacher salaries, replacement of dilapidated buildings and construction of magnet schools.
For Missouri, which was turned aside by lower courts, the issue is money. After spending $1.3 billion to implement the plan, state Attorney General Jay Nixon said, taxpayers from across Missouri shouldn't continue to pay for a local problem.
Nixon contends the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals improperly made it tougher for Missouri to end its involvement by indicating it must show the money got results in the form of improved achievement test scores by students.
``The law requires equal access to educational opportunities,'' Nixon said. ``It does not require specific academic results.''
Lining up against the state are the school district, which is almost 69 percent black, the Clinton administration, the NAACP, the Urban League, child-advocacy groups, the ACLU, more than 50 prominent social scientists and the business-oriented Civic Council of Kansas City.
All say Missouri must allow more time for the desegregation plan to show results, such as better test scores, lower dropout rates and more college-bound graduates. Now, an NAACP brief says, 25 percent of the district's students are ``among the lowest-achieving students in the nation'' based on test scores.
If Missouri's role in the case ends, local governments would have to pay for continuing improvements.
by CNB