Court reversal allows students to escape failing schools.

In the best interest of students

STRANGE DAYS indeed. It’s not often that you read about judges reversing themselves. Oh, it may happen in the halls of the courtroom here and there. But reversals aren’t usually the stuff of Big Things, and therefore wouldn’t usually make the papers.

But it happened the other day. And in the best way. Now if the lawyers can keep the higher courts from reversing the reversal.

A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that students can transfer out of four south Arkansas school districts. Actually, the court ruled that several federal school deseg orders— these things can be decades, generations, old—can’t be used as excuses to keep students in their failing schools.

The ruling by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court was a reversal of its earlier decision. We don’t know what the judges had for breakfast the morning that case was (re)argued, but make sure it never runs out in the courthouse cafeteria.

Once upon a time—and it feels like this case has been going on forever— the state of Arkansas passed a law that would allow students to transfer out of failing school districts into districts down the road that provided better educations. The theory was that schools would try harder, to compete for kids—and the state money that follows them—by making schools better. Competition works pert near everywhere else; why not in education? After many updates and changes and amendments to the law(s), it appeared as though Arkansas finally had a workable one by 2017.

But the failing school districts didn’t like losing the money. And four of them in south Arkansas—the Hope, Camden Fairview, Lafayette County and Junction City school districts—found a creative way to argue against the law in court. They said student transfers would result in white flight from their schools, the Black-to-white ratios would change, and thus the new law would violate their previously issued federal school desegregation orders.

Some of these orders go back to the 1960s.

A federal judge ruled for the districts. The 8th Circuit upheld the ruling. And then the strange part: The same court held a rehearing and reversed course.

The legalese gets into the weeds. (The old consent decrees dealt with discrimination. That has nothing to do with transfers. The district judge modified deseg orders improperly. And more.)

For more details, see Cynthia Howell’s front-page story on Thursday. For even more details, read the decision yourself at arkansasonline.com/826decision/

It’s a remarkably well-written piece of legal work. Which is surprising. Lawyers usually write to be legal, not understood. But check out page 23 of the ruling, and these paragraphs:

“Arkansas has chosen school choice as the policy of its state. Instead of directly challenging the policy chosen by their state’s legislators, the school districts have come to federal court and asked a United States district judge to expand the scope of decades-old consent decrees in order to avoid complying with Arkansas’ new school-choice law. Without the prerequisite showing that the current condition flows from a violation of federal law, this is not a job of a federal judge.”

That is, judicial restraint is heard from. Strange days.

And this:

“We also note that we have concerns about these desegregation orders continuing in place. The orders have been in place for decades . . . . ” The decision then asks whether continued federal oversight is even needed, then notes how long these deseg orders have been around in all four districts. NB: The deseg order for Junction City has been “dormant for over four decades.”

Yet the arguments that freed students from segregation all those years ago would be used to keep their great-grandchildren in failing school districts today. Thankfully, the 8th Circuit won’t allow it. (The dissent is also included in the link above.)

No telling if the school districts will appeal to a higher court. That’s always possible, even probable, when money is a concern. But all of Arkansas should hope that if that’s the case, the circuit court won’t stay its opinion and at least allow these kids to escape to better school districts until all this is ironed out.

What a pity it would be to force them to attend bad schools for yet another year while the adults fight it out in court.