317 F.Supp. 512 (S.D.Tex. 1970), Civ. A. 10444, Ross v. Eckels
| Citation | 317 F.Supp. 512 |
| Party Name | Ross v. Eckels |
| Case Date | May 30, 1970 |
| Court | United States District Courts, 5th Circuit, U.S. District Court — Southern District of Texas |
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Weldon H. Berry, Houston, Tex., and Conrad K. Harper, New York City, for plaintiffs.
John M. Rosenberg, Washington, D.C., for plaintiff-intervenor.
Brown, Kronzer, Abraham, Watkins & Steely, W. James Kronzer, Houston, Tex., for defendants.
MEMORANDUM AND ORDER:
CONNALLY, Chief Judge.
This is another chapter in the effort presently to create a unitary school system, and further to disestablish the dual school system maintained by the defendant Houston Independent School District prior to 1954. This action was filed in December, 1956. Any number of hearings have been held, and orders have been entered, over the intervening years. Beginning with a one grade per year desegregation plan; followed by an acceleration of this to a two grade per year plan; followed by the integration of athletics and other extracurricular activities; and culminating with the freedom of choice plan 1 presently in operation and initiated pursuant to order of this Court of September 5, 1967, Houston has, in my judgment, come a long way along the road. Substantial integration has been achieved in many areas; 2 and, of almost equal importance, has been achieved without incident or racial confrontation.
To bring what has been done, and what remains to be done, into proper perspective, these facts should be borne in mind. The Houston Independent School District is the largest in the South, and is the sixth largest in the nation. It covers 311 square miles. It has a student population of 238,460, of
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which almost exactly two-thirds (66.9%) are white and one-third (33.1%) black. It employs 9,624 teachers, of which approximately two-thirds (68%) are white, one-third (32%) black. It operates 230 schools on 225 campuses, 3 of which 170 are elementary schools, 36 are junior high and 24 are high schools.
Pursuant to a motion by the plaintiffs for further relief, a hearing was held June 14-23, 1969. At that time I found, and so advised the parties, that the incidence of integration, both of faculty and student body, under the present plan did not meet the requirements of the recent cases. (Green v. County School Board of New Kent Co., 391 U.S. 430, 88 S.Ct. 1689, 20 L.Ed.2d 716 (1968); Alexander v. Holmes County Board of Education, 396 U.S. 19, 90 S.Ct. 29, 24 L.Ed.2d 19 (1969); Singleton v. Jackson Municipal Separate School District, 'Singleton III', 419 F.2d 1211 (5th Cir. 1969). The School Board was directed to devise a new plan and to submit same for consideration by January 1, 1970. 4
The Board of Trustees of the Houston Independent School District is composed of seven members, all elected. An election was held for members of this Board in December, 1969. Four members of the Board were replaced by the same number of new members. The new Board took office January 10, 1970. Almost immediately the firm of attorneys who had represented the Board during the 14 years of litigation in this matter withdrew from the case, and new counsel--theretofore completely unrelated to this litigation in any fashion-- was employed and entered an appearance. The new counsel requested, and was granted, a matter of a few weeks to familiarize himself with the litigation. At the request of new counsel, the defendant Board has hastily prepared detailed student locator maps showing the residence, race 5 and grade standing of each of the almost one-quarter million students in the School District. Thus, now, for the first time, one may forecast accurately the effect of any new plan of integration which may be invoked.
The opinion of the Supreme Court in Green, supra, and of the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in Singleton, supra, have been cited in cases too numerous to mention as furnishing the criteria which a school district is required to meet to establish the desired 'unitary' system. The conversation involves the merger of faculty and staff, students, transportation, services, athletics and other extracurricular school activities (Singleton, supra, and Ellis v. Board of Public Instruction of Orange County, Florida, 423 F.2d 203 (1970). There is no controversy here except as to the means to be used for increased student integration. While the integration of faculty and staff today does not meet the two-thirds white-- one-third Negro ratio required by Singleton, the defendant Board recognizes its obligation in this respect and does not contest the issue.
In all other respects (transportation, services, facilities, athletics and other extracurricular school activities), the defendant Board is presently in compliance with the Green and Singleton requirements. 6
The only question which remains is that of student integration. The question is not easily resolved. Few meaningful guidelines have been established
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by the appellate courts. In the great majority of cases, without saying what is required, the appellate courts have simply said to the District Court, 'This is not enough.' (See the opinion of Judge Coleman, dissenting in part, in Singleton v. Jackson Municipal Separate School District, 425 F.2d 1211 (5th Cir. en banc. January 21, 1970).
In approaching the problem I consider it to be the duty of this Court to adopt a plan which will serve realistically (a) to bring about now a high degree of overall student integration, (b) to assure that every student, if not receiving his education in an integrated atmosphere today, soon will do so, and (c) to do this in a manner which is consistent with good education, good administration, and with sound economic practices.
Presently there are seven plans before the Court for consideration. They will be denominated hereafter as follows:
1. The plaintiff's plan;
2. The Intervenor (U.S.) or the Stolee plan;
3. The Ted-Tac plan;
4. The freedom of choice plan;
5. The neighborhood zoning plan;
6. The equi-distant attendance plan; and
7. The geographic capacity plan.
Numbers 4 and 5 were filed herein December 31, 1969, by the outgoing (1969) School Board. Numbers 6 and 7 have been recently filed by the new (or 1970) School Board. The plans will be briefly summarized hereafter.
1. THE PLAINTIFF'S PLAN.
This is a computerized scheme composed by a Computer Center in Boston, Massachusetts, whose services were availed of by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Legal Defense Fund. 7 It is based upon the premise that the law requires that every school in the District shall have the same ratio of white to Negro students as prevails throughout the District. For practical purposes plaintiff's counsel concedes that some margin must be allowed, and suggests that this margin should be no more than 10% Above or below. Thus every school would have a ratio of white to Negro students ranging from 57% White-- 43% Negro to 77% White-- 23% Negro.
Further recognizing the realities of the situation, however, the computerized plan does not go this far, by reason of the admittedly prohibitive costs involved. The plan as submitted would result in no school having a student body in excess of 50% Negro. In light of the geographical size of the District and the residential patterns which prevail, to accomplish this result would require the daily busing of an estimated 44,000 students, approximately 34,000 white and 10,000 Negro. The plan is designed to restrict the maximum haul to a distance of 10 miles from the home of any student, and as not to overtax the capacity of any given school.
The plaintiff's witness estimates the annual and recurring cost of the busing at the figure of $1,100,000. Witnesses for the defendant Board have estimated that an initial capital outlay for new equipment would come to $2,800,000, with a recurring annual expense of $1,300,000.
If the premise on which this plan is based is accepted, then plaintiff's plan affords a reasonably efficient way to achieve this result.
I am unable, however, to accept this premise. The overall educational process-- the assurance that a high school graduate will have received a full and well-rounded education-- involves a great deal more than the body count at the schools which he attended. The one million plus dollars admittedly required annually to implement the plaintiff's proposal can be
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better spent in providing more and better teachers, newer and more efficient schools and other facilities than in increasing ever so slightly the Negro-to-white ratio in a few specific schools. There are better ways of accomplishing comparable and acceptable results.
The mass busing procedure raises more problems than it solves. In a hypothetical situation, which would arise many times under the plaintiff's proposal, a black child who lives two blocks from School A, a predominantly black school, is to be bussed, together with 50% Of his schoolmates, to School B, a predominantly white school, ten miles away; and 50% Of the students at School B are to be bussed the same ten miles in the opposite direction. The plaintiff's plan is silent as to how the black children who are to be required to go, no doubt against the will of many of them, should be chosen. Are the school authorities to set up some draft system, with deferments based on hardships or other valid considerations? Are the names of those to fill the quota to be drawn in public from a goldfish bowl? Is provision to be made for a review procedure, with ultimate appeals to the courts? 8
The hypothetical child who is thus transported against his wishes will be deprived of many educational opportunities. He will be unable to participate in...
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