April 18, 2006.  NAACP Opposes Plan to Resegregate Omaha Public Schools
Civil rights organization that spearheaded legal defeat of school segregation more than 50 years ago will consider legal steps to derail Omaha plan

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), which spearheaded the fight to have public school segregation declared illegal by the U.S. Supreme Court more than 50 years ago, strongly condemns a plan that will result in the resegregation of Omaha public schools.

The Nebraska legislature voted last week to divide the Omaha school system into three districts --one mostly black, one predominately white and one largely Hispanic. Gov. Dave Heineman signed the measure into law.

NAACP President & CEO Bruce S. Gordon said: “We strongly oppose the Nebraska law that divides the Omaha public schools along racial lines. The Supreme Court ruled 52 years ago that separate but equal schools result in inequality and poor education for minority children. We will use every advocacy tool, including legal, at our disposal to fight this unconstitutional law."

In 1976, a court ordered the 45,000-student Omaha school system desegregated. The city ran a mandatory busing program from 1976 to 1999. “To think that in 2006, after all that has been done to desegregate schools, a state legislative body would pass, and a governor sign into law, a bill that intentionally segregates students based on their race or ethnicity is unconscionable," Gordon said.

Founded in 1909, the NAACP is the nation's oldest and largest civil rights organization. Its members throughout the United States and the world are the premier advocates for civil rights in their communities, conducting voter mobilization and monitoring equal opportunity in the public and private sectors.

CONTACT: NAACP Office of Communications 410.580.5125

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Published Saturday, April 29, 2006.  Omaha World Herald Online Edition

NAACP calls new school law bad policy

BY JEFFREY ROBB
AND MICHAELA SAUNDERS

Omaha school district leaders and the national NAACP are raising concerns about aspects of the learning community law aside from the controversial split of the district.

On Friday, the NAACP called the new law bad educational policy.

NAACP and Omaha Public Schools officials criticized the law for offering too little funding, doing too little to promote integration - and even for hampering efforts that are under way.

An OPS attorney and Superintendent John Mackiel presented a new critical analysis of the law to district supporters during invitation-only meetings this week.

The meetings were intended to lay the groundwork for school board meeting Monday, at which the board will give Mackiel direction on his position during coming negotiations with suburban school superintendents.

Until now, Mackiel and other OPS officials have praised the potential of the learning community law, aside from the OPS breakup. On Friday, district officials emphasized that they want to work within the learning community concept.

But Sandra Jensen, president of the Omaha school board, said officials were just realizing certain troubling aspects of the new law.

"We see the learning community as a framework," she said. But, she added, "People are now sitting down and looking at other pieces that are in (Legislative Bill 1024) that also need to be addressed."

To be sure, the original coalition of suburban districts - Millard, Westside, Elkhorn and Ralston - has raised its own concerns about the law. However, those districts also have made clear they support the learning community concept.

Last week, Mackiel and three suburban superintendents pledged to work together to resolve their differences.

At a Friday press conference, the NAACP set no timetable for when it might file a lawsuit that it has threatened.

But John Jackson, the national NAACP's chief policy director, said the group expects to see progress soon from the Legislature and Gov. Dave Heineman. He said he hoped the Legislature would come up with an alternative by January 2007, when senators start their next regular session.

Jackson and Tommie Wilson, president of the NAACP's Omaha branch, held their press conference at OPS headquarters. District officials attended but did not participate. The NAACP had requested access to the building, as any outside group must do.

Jackson met Friday with Mackiel; an OPS lawyer; State Sen. Gwen Howard, who is a strong OPS supporter; and State Sen. Ernie Chambers, who won legislative approval of the OPS breakup.

Among the new concerns that Jackson and OPS officials raised:

• Priority for student transfers, when a school has room, is given to low-income students, but only to those students. The concern is that schools with a significant number of poor kids, who need to integrate more middle-class students, might attract only more poor students.

• The law requires an integration plan and offers free transportation to students who want to go anywhere besides their neighborhood schools. That, OPS said, would be less effective than the district's current voluntary integration practices. OPS, like other districts nationally, uses free transportation to attract students to certain schools.

• Open enrollment is a big part of the law. However, schools are open to transfers only if there is room. Districts also have latitude in establishing that capacity, potentially squeezing out low-income students who want to transfer to the suburbs.

• Though the law intends to offer low-wealth districts more tax base and added state aid, critics say the changes could leave the three districts that would replace OPS with too little money. The NAACP called for a plan that offers adequate funding for education, a concern that OPS is raising in a current lawsuit against the State of Nebraska.

Though the Omaha district stands behind the learning community concept as an important one, OPS lawyer Elizabeth Eynon-Kokrda said many of the details raise concerns.

"This bill has all sorts of far-reaching consequences," she said Friday. She said the district questions many aspects, but "we'd like to make sure they can work."

OPS held a series of meetings this week with dozens of close supporters. The meetings attracted parents, state senators, pastors and representatives from community groups including Omaha Together One Community and the pro-OPS Alliance for Omaha's Future.

Mackiel said the meetings "afforded us a tremendous opportunity to talk factually."

Mackiel said he and other district officials "walked in with the benefit of an analysis (of the law) and bumped into perception that was formed without actually reading the law."

"It was a classic example," he said, of how "out of that discussion comes a clearer understanding."

State Sen. Pat Bourne, a leading OPS supporter, attended Friday's meeting.

Bourne said the discussion revolved around how the law would work, because many attendees were still trying to understand it. He said the meeting wasn't inflammatory.

"'Here's the facts,'" Bourne said in characterizing the presentation. "'You help us decide what the next steps are as a community.'"

Although the NAACP called on the Legislature to go back to the drawing board, Aaron Sanderford, the governor's spokesman, reiterated Friday that Heineman would call a special legislative session if the community were to reach a consensus on ways to improve the law.

"There are some very good parts of that law," Sanderford said. "There obviously are parts that give the governor concerns."

Sanderford said it has taken months and passage of the learning community law to bring together metro area districts for a discussion that goes beyond school district boundaries. He said the coming talks need time to work.

"I think everybody wants this to happen faster than it can," he said.


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