The most important challenge to school integration you've never heard of
In January 1989, a group of civil rights advocates filed a lawsuit against the state of Connecticut, arguing that racially segregated schools in the Hartford metropolitan region denied children their right to an equal education. Sheff v. O’Neill was the first school segregation lawsuit to frame the problem as rights violated under a state constitution, rather than the federal constitution.
Seven years later, the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, and ever since, the state has been implementing (at times quite begrudgingly) a highly unusual legal remedy to integrate public schools in Hartford and its surrounding suburbs. Today a little less than half of all Hartford students learn in integrated schools, and many more are on waitlists.
But as the Sheff attorneys continue to push for more funding to expand integrated schools to more Hartford students, a larger, more existential threat looms for their movement.
That comes in the form of a new federal suit, filed by the Pacific Legal Foundation, a conservative law firm known for challenging affirmative action, the Voting Rights Acts, union fees, and bilingual education. In their new case, Robinson v. Wentzell, the Pacific Legal Foundation argues that the race-conscious measures used to promote school integration in the wake of Sheff are actually racially discriminatory and unconstitutional. The lead plaintiff, LaShawn Robinson, is an African-American mother in Hartford who says her son Jarod was denied access to an integrated school because of the color of his skin.
I wrote about this high-stakes challenge for The Nation, and explore the larger political context behind the case in Connecticut. This is a story worth keeping up with: if our right-tilting U.S. Supreme Court were to hear any case in the next few years about school integration, it would probably be Robinson v. Wentzell.
Thanks for reading — I have a few more stories coming out this week related to education and labor, so you should hear from me again soon!