Almost 40 years after the Tucson Unified School District was put under a federal desegregation court order, most of the people involved in the dispute seem willing to end this decades-long debacle.
As reported by the Star’s Hank Stephenson, the expert appointed by the court to work with the district on its desegregation plan has recommended that TUSD be found in partial compliance and has outlined steps officials can take to end the court’s supervision.
The district must do everything in its power to reach these goals.
Over the intervening years, TUSD has received over a billion dollars in desegregation funding meant to bring it in line with the court order. Millions have been spent on attorney fees. Beyond the inordinate amount of money taxpayers have spent, it is incomprehensible how the district has so far been unable to meet the court’s demands.
Those demands are seemingly simple and are geared toward one end: Improve educational opportunity for minority students so it is equal to that available to white students.
While the district has changed since 1974 — when the original lawsuit was filed, and the student body was about 70 percent white — TUSD has continually fallen short, no matter the parameters. Even since 2013, when a Unitary Status Plan was devised to end the order, the district almost immediately engaged in fighting the agreement it helped design and put in place.
Recognition must be made, though, to the improvements that have been achieved and which were recognized by Willis D. Hawley, the court-appointed special master, in his annual report filed in the U.S. District Court of Arizona.
Along with strategies to promote and sustain integration, the plan included provisions to increase diversity and effectiveness of teachers, strengthen and enrich curriculum, develop supportive school environments and ensure equity in facilities, according to the report.
Hawley found the district was meeting its goals on several fronts, including:
• Districtwide integration, even considering the challenge faced in a state where support for charter schools is strong and which “essentially incentivizes suburban schools to recruit students” from districts such as TUSD. This did not apply to magnet schools, though.
• Student transportation, with an increase in school activity buses, bus pass use and express shuttle options.
• Diversity of professional staff workers, while still limited, isn’t because of lack of trying. The district is hobbled by a nationwide teacher shortage and the “inadequate salaries” paid to Arizona educators.
• Family and community engagement has seen substantial investment through four family centers, which provide services, events and information for parents.
• International Baccalaureate, dual-credit and culturally relevant courses.
While the special master found the district lacking in many other areas — including disciplinary policies, extracurricular activities, and accountability and transparency efforts — in each case the report clearly outlines specific measures TUSD can take to come into compliance.
Representatives for the plaintiffs argue that these completion plans are inadequate in many cases and set a “low bar” in an effort to finally get the district out from under the desegregation order, regardless of whether it has truly ended the disparity in students’ academic achievement.
But the plaintiffs were also involved in crafting the Unitary Status Plan, so while their concerns should be taken seriously, if the district makes good-faith efforts to comply with the plan, this is no time to start moving the goal posts.
It is inexcusable that it has taken this long to get this far, but if an end is in sight, all parties should work together to at long last do what’s best for all TUSD students.
