Reply to What would a lawsuit over redistricting/school assignment look like?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'm confused.  It has always seemed to me AA families EOTP always had a potential case, but people getting moved out of the crowded white schools to other DCPS with space?  No way.  You are just a bunch of idiots.  [/quote]

There are two types of lawsuits that I can imagine:

1) If DC govt decides to end all OOB feeder rights to the WOTP schools, in order to solve the crowding problem, the practical result might be de facto segregation. Deal/Wilson, and to a lesser extent Hardy, will be very white, while the schools EOTP will be very black. I could see some (black) EOTP parents trying for a civil rights/desegregation case. Request a desegregation order, demand that students be put on buses or demand to keep the OOB feeders etc.

2) If DC decides to make WOTP MS/HS lottery with no proximity preference, or does something else to upset WOTP parents, the WOTP parents could hire lawyers steeped in DC admin and Federal review and try to find every procedural flaw that they can. This could delay the process and create time for a political campaign, but not stop the process.

I am not sure what the chances are for (1). I'm a lawyer but I don't have experience with those types of cases. Maybe someone else can comment.

Regarding (2), maybe you could succeed in making life difficult for DC for a while, but only for a while, and you are spending your own money while DC spends your tax dollars defending your suit. I think more likely than (2), if WOTP parents or high-SES parents in general feel aggrieved, maybe they could take it to Congress. DC doesn't have any votes but maybe there are some reps who are willing to make an issue out of it. Maybe you could convince Republicans that DC will become even more Democrat if bad school policy results in white flight from the city. If DC was worried that Congress might interfere (this has rarely been done), then DC might water down the proposal...

But as others have said, there is no constitutional right to neighborhood schools. Even if many of us see neighborhood schools as fundamental to the fabric of society in the US. I certainly do. 
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