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Superintendent Robby Lowe: JCSD ‘relieved’ by school choice decision
On Wednesday, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a December 2020 decision exempting four Arkansas school districts, including the Junction City School District, from participating in student transfers allowed by the School Choice Act.
The original ruling, which allowed the to JCSD along with Camden Fairview, Lafayette County and Hope school districts to claim exemptions from the Arkansas School Choice Act to avoid infringing upon desegregation requirements, was made in 2019 by El Dorado U.S. District Judge Susan O. Hickey.
In the Junction City School District’s case, the initial ruling modified a 1970 desegregation court order which alleged the district “was operating an unconstitutional, racially segregated school system” and mandated desegregation of the district’s classrooms and transportation routes.
This followed a 1966 lawsuit by the United States against the JCSD alleging that it operated a “dual system” composed of the majority-white Junction City schools and majority-Black Rosenwald schools.
Hickey’s 2019 ruling was came after the Junction City School District sought and was denied exemption from interdistrict transfers per the 2017 School Choice Act to not counteract its adherence to the 1970 desegregation order.
Hickey determined that, while the 1970 order doesn’t specifically prohibit interdistrict transfers, it “clearly intended” to prohibit any racial discrimination occurring within the district including preventing student transfers which result in segregation of the student body, according to previous News-Times reporting.
Hickey’s initial ruling was then upheld in December 2020 by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis following an appeal by the state Attorney General’s Office representing the state Department of Education and Board of Education.
The court on Wednesday reversed the December opinion in response to further state and new U.S. Department of Justice appeals in March and granted a rehearing petition, according to Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reporting.
In documentation from Wednesday’s hearing, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals expressly states that the 1970 order “says nothing about other school districts or transfer students.” The ruling goes on to state that “because no vestige of discrimination traces to interdistrict school transfers the district court abused its discretion in expanding the consent decrees to prohibit such transfers.”
JCSD superintendent Robby Lowe in January called the district’s efforts a “search for clarity given that almost all transfer requests are from white families seeking admission into predominately white school districts” and said that “the administration and board contend that there is no real benefit from the exemption other than we feel it is important to follow the spirit of the original court orders.”
In response to Wednesday’s reversal of that December ruling, Lowe said that “the Junction School District is relieved that a decision has been made.”
He continued, “We are excited that we will able to offer students from the sur
to offer students from the surrounding area an opportunity to attend a school where all students are important. In our district, we embrace diversity and readily engage with parents so their children can have the best educational experience possible. We are not perfect, but we do vow to listen to the concerns and opinions of all. That coupled with our expanded learning opportunities makes Junction City a great school district for all children. Our school district is a community dedicated to meeting the needs of all children.”
Lowe said that any further legal actions are currently unknown and, if pursued, would be discussed at the district’s board meeting on Tuesday, September 14.
Wednesday’s 8th Circuit panel was made up of Circuit Judges Ralph R. Erickson of Fargo, N.D.; Jonathan A. Kobes of Sioux Falls, S.D., and Michael Joseph Melloy of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Melloy dissented to the decision to overrule the district court’s decision, writing that “given the evidence of white flight under the original consent decrees and the original lack of any need for the decrees to reference previously impermissible segregative interdistrict transfers, I would hold that the subsequent amendments to Arkansas law justify modification of the decrees.” Melloy also contends that “evidence in the record amply demonstrates a white-flight problem in Junction City and a substantially negative impact on Camden-Fairview’s and Hope’s racial demographics.”
Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge issued a statement on Wednesday celebrating the reversal decision, stating in part that “this win reaffirms that a student’s access to educational opportunities should not be limited by a family’s checkbook or zip code… I have always argued that we must empower parents by allowing them to decide what’s best for their children’s education. This ruling confirms that.”