Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
Fair Shake: Tom Myers, left, complains to attorneys involved in the desegregation of San Jose Unified School District schools that Willow Glen public schools get less funding for desegregation than other schools in the district. Heidi Hobbs, center, and Carol Myers share his concerns.
Parents clash with SJUSD over desegregation funds
Some say Willow Glen schools aren't getting their fair share
By Kate Carter
In 1971, a class action lawsuit was filed by parents of Hispanic students against San Jose Unified School District, claiming that district schools were intentionally racially segregated. In 1984, a federal court found that the school district was segregated and mandated that it implement programs to desegregate its schools and improve the academic achievement of its Hispanic students.
But even now, the issue remains controversial.
Last week, parents of students at Willow Glen public schools met with district representatives and attorneys for both sides of the lawsuit to find out why their children's desegregated schools aren't getting as much money for desegregation as other district schools.
At issue is $30 million that the school district receives from the state to pay for desegregation programs that allow parents to choose which high school or middle school their child attends. Schools that needed to be desegregated established magnet programs to attract students from throughout the district in order to diversify their student body.
Willow Glen schools did not have to be desegregated and, as a result, lack some of the programs that other area schools can offer students, even though they have higher percentages of Hispanic students.
Parents and community members who spoke at the meeting said this does a disservice to the students who need the most help and causes Willow Glen students to attend schools elsewhere.
"Our kids are not getting the same education as the other kids in the district," said parent Heidi Hobbs.
Attorneys for both the parents of Hispanic students in the district and the school district told the group of about 80 at the Oct. 25 community meeting at Willow Glen High School that in 1984 a federal circuit court found that district schools were intentionally segregated.
"It was a system where one student received a different level of education based on race," said attorney Francisco García-Rodríguez, who represents the Hispanic families in the implementation of the court order. "Part of this order is to try to eliminate racial isolation that existed in the past, and that is a difficult challenge in this district."
The federal court order requires that money be spent to integrate the schools in the north end of the school district that have mostly Hispanic students and the schools in the south end that have mostly caucasian students. It also requires that the Hispanic community be given reparations in the form of improved educational programs.
García-Rodríguez said that to accomplish the desegregation requirements of the federal court order, the district has implemented a choice program that allows parents a choice as to which schools they send their children. The district has created several magnet programs in schools in both the northern and southern areas of the district to attract students from around the district, and to create more integrated student populations, he said.
The elementary schools are no longer involved in the choice system, but parents continue to choose which middle and high schools their children attend. The arts programs at Lincoln High and Castillero Middle schools and the International Baccalaureate program at San Jose High Academy are funded by state desegregation money and are designed to attract a more diverse student body.
But several people who attended the meeting said that those programs are not improving the academic performance levels of low-achieving Hispanic students. The percentage of Hispanic students at those schools also is less than the percentage of Hispanic students at Willow Glen schools.
The attorneys--for both the district and the Hispanic families--responded by saying that the desegregation money is intended to help increase the racial diversity at targeted schools and not only for improving the academic success of underprivileged students.
Willow Glen, which is in the middle of the district, was not found to be racially segregated. The district covers a long but narrow stretch of San Jose, from near the San Jose International Airport in the north to the Almaden Valley to the south.
"Willow Glen was a naturally integrated community at that time, as you remain," said Celia Ruiz, an attorney for the district.
Some parents are upset that Willow Glen schools do not receive an equivalent amount of money, although their schools have larger percentages of Hispanic students. The attorneys told them that because they are already integrated they can't get the same funds.
"It would probably be completely proper if they gave you zero funds," García-Rodríguez told parents. "But they haven't done that. You cannot have that kind of money because you cannot have a magnet in a naturally desegregated school."
Parents expressed concern that some neighborhood children are going to schools elsewhere that can offer better programs than Willow Glen schools. At the same time, they say, those programs in other schools are not addressing the academic needs of the Hispanic students, but instead giving caucasian students advantages they don't need.
"We're losing our higher-scoring students to other schools, and they're being replaced with low-achieving Hispanic students," said district board trustee Carol Myers, who represents Willow Glen. "That's what happens with choice; you create a have and a have-not, and it's hurting a lot of our Hispanic students."
District officials told the group that Willow Glen High School received $900,111 in averaged desegregation dollars for the 2000-01 school year, the second-highest amount given to the six high schools in the district. But Myers said that this is the first year Willow Glen High has received that much.
Sharon Andres, the district's desegregation specialist, said that the decision to give Willow Glen the extra money was to respond to the low test scores of some of its students. Willow Glen High Principal Pat Day said that the school has used the money to hire a full-time teacher and a part-time coordinator for 13 additional classes to assist underperforming students.
But Myers said that other schools in the district receive their desegregation money without being told how to use it.
Willow Glen Middle School received $549,787 this year, the fourth-largest amount of the district's seven middle schools.
The district is beginning a two-year evaluation of the desegregation program to examine the effects of the district's policy, Andres said.
If district officials find that the money is not supporting desegregation, then the district could lose the funding, García-Rodríguez told parents. "This is not a public policy issue. This is a legal case."
The attorneys offered to meet with the community again, but they emphasized that they could not go against the terms of the court order.
"We're working within legally imposed parameters," Ruiz said. "A lot of your concerns go beyond desegregation."
Willow Glen, California Since 1992
