Another chance to right racial wrongs

Though they’ve likely never been on the wrong side of a confrontation with police, people attending marches and demonstrations in nearly allwhite Connecticut towns are doing the right thing. They’re displaying empathy, which is more than we might have seen in years past. But no one should pretend it’s enough.

The state, after all, had a test case in breaking down racial barriers in the recent past, and by the reaction you might have thought we were living in the Jim Crow South. The issue was school regionalization, and it was an opportunity to make good on what people around the state claim to be demonstrating for: an end to discrimination and a fair chance for everyone regardless of race or background. Connecticut had a chance to move in that direction, and it failed.

Gov. Ned Lamont framed the 2019 issue as a money- saver, and the official plans would not have touched the makeup of classrooms. The idea was for smaller school districts to make back- office changes — combining administrative functions, sharing maintenance work, things like that. But no one reacted to that limited plan, which was understandable, since Lamont himself went further, saying there were positive outcomes to be had from combining overcrowded city classrooms with thinning- out suburban and rural schools.

He was right. Still, the white suburbs reacted with fury. Lamont pulled back and the issue died quickly.

That was then. Lamont was at the time suffering from Ned Malloy syndrome, where voters gave him low approval based mostly on his predecessor’s perceived economic record. Since the school regionalization debacle, Lamont has been faced with a world- historical crisis in the COVID- 19 pandemic, and has earned high marks from voters. He is seen as honest and doing the best he can in an impossible situation. Though Connecticut has suffered terribly, with more than 4,000 coronavirus deaths, voters’ esteem for Lamont has only risen.

Just as the state began to reopen, a rival to the pandemic in terms of national importance has taken shape. Here, too, Lamont has done well, recognizing the seriousness of the issue and affirming the message of anti- racism protesters. Events in Connecticut have been notably free of violent clashes, which does not mean there aren’t problems with policing in the state, but could at least indicate a path toward reconciliation.

Now is the time to start, and the governor could begin by reintroducing his original plan to merge school functions across district lines. But this time he should think bigger, pushing for real changes on the classroom level. Combine districts, with students crossing municipal lines. Bridgeport into Easton. New Haven into Woodbridge. Norwalk into Wilton. Lamont should highlight evidence that shows the benefits for all students from integrated classrooms.

He should tie his proposal explicitly to the protests across Connecticut, from cities to small towns. You want equality? Here’s how to start to get it. Police and housing reform are necessary but will take time. School districts could be altered the next time the Legislature meets, likely this summer in a special session.

U. S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D- Conn., laid the issue out well. “There is a set of reforms that white people who support the protests will broadly cheer ( police reform, for instance),” he said on Twitter.

“Then there are reforms ( housing/ zoning reform, school funding equity, for instance) that will test just how supportive white allies are actually prepared to be,” Murphy continued. “Allies need to be on board for all of it, not just the parts that don’t require white people to change how they live.”

This is the key. It’s one thing to take a knee and chant, “No justice, no peace,” in a place where residents have virtually no interaction with police on a daily basis, as in most of suburban Connecticut. Demanding reform doesn’t affect anyone’s daily lives in those towns, which doesn’t make the demand any less necessary. This is a fight for basic humanity, and it’s admirable that suburbs don’t want to sit this one out.

Murphy, unfortunately, is not in a position to make these changes. The U. S. Senate doesn’t have the final word on local zoning or school district boundaries.

The governor is another story. Ned Lamont has renewed stature and a chance to make lasting change, to start to right some of Connecticut’s historic wrongs. He showed by pursuing school regionalization last year he has the right instincts and knows what the problems are.

Now he, and everyone showing up at rallies, needs to follow through.