BY DANA DiFILIPPO
The Cincinnati Enquirer
When the NAACP filed a federal lawsuit to desegregate Cincinnati Public Schools 24 years ago, most of the students in the district's poorest performing schools were black.
Now, although the racial disparity persists in some schools, leaders of the civil-rights group hope to revive the lawsuit -- this time targeting performance problems rather than enrollment imbalance. The Cincinnati branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People will hold a news conference this morning to announce its plans to reopen the Bronson vs. Board lawsuit in U.S. District Court.
They aim to force the district to ensure better performance among students -- especially those in low-income, neighborhood schools. The district's enrollment is 70 percent black and 27 percent white. About 64 percent of students are from families receiving public assistance.
"When the district was released from oversight by the courts, there were certain academic standards that they promised to implement," NAACP-Cincinnati President Milton Hinton said. "If they've implemented them, we don't see the results of it. Low performance continues to be a major problem in Cincinnati schools."
Mona Bronson vs. Board of Education of Cincinnati was filed in May 1974 on behalf of Mona Bronson and 19 other black students. It alleged the district unconstitutionally segregated schools.
The suit was settled in 1984 when the district made several promises intended to decrease segregation and better serve children at low-income schools.
Critics have won past fights to ensure those promises were honored, hauling the case to court several times to amend the consent decree. The most recent amendment came in 1994.
During the past year, the district has provided the Ohio Department of Education with information to determine whether it meets its desegregation commitments.
But district counsel John Concannon said he doubts NAACP leaders can convince the courts to reopen the case on performance issues. "That agreement (signed in 1994 by the district and the NAACP) outlined things we would do to improve student achievement, but there are no results guaranteed," he said.
"I don't want to de-emphasize achievement and we agree that results are important, but that legal agreement did not specify any desired results."
Discouraging numbers
But critics say dismal performance statistics -- and a lack of improvement despite administrators' insistence that they're trying to raise scores -- prove a need for intervention.
In some schools, less than 10 percent of students pass all sections of state proficiency tests. And about half of those who start high school don't graduate.
And Bill Taylor, Washington, D.C., attorney who was lead counsel in the Bronson suit, said the settlement allowed for the plaintiffs to reopen the case if they determined progress wasn't being made. From 1974 until the last consent decree amendment in 1994, the Bronson lawsuit influenced every major policy decision in the district.
Millions were spent on expanding alternative schools, which push integration by offering special programs such as Montessori or intense foreign language studies to entice families to choose schools outside their neighborhoods.
Bronson also led to new disciplinary policies, caused millions of dollars to be directed to low-achieving schools and created new efforts to integrate schools.
Mark Skertic contributed to this report.
