2018 NJ School Segregation Lawsuit To Return To Courtroom

NEW JERSEY — A 2018 lawsuit against New Jersey that seeks to end school segregation is slated to head back into the courtroom on Saturday after months of delays and legal challenges. If successful, Garden State schools could see major shifts in how racial balance is managed in the classroom, as well as change policies that dictate where students can attend school.

The discovery period of the lawsuit recently ended in November and the next court hearing is set for Saturday, Jan. 22, according to court records.

According to a UCLA study conducted in 2017, it found that New Jersey schools had a "severe segregation of black and Hispanic students" and that schools were moving toward a "segregated future."

The Asbury Park Press also stated that "the racial makeup of public schools statewide has shifted somewhat in the past 20 years, from 66% white to 46% white." However, this shift is mostly due to an increase in student enrollment and an influx of more Latino students in the state, according to the APP.

From district to district, there remains a wide racial disparity in students. The APP said while most public schools in Monmouth and Ocean counties are more than 70 percent white, other counties like Hudson — and most urban areas — are predominantly black and Hispanic, according to state data.

The lawsuit filed on May 17, 2018 — the anniversary of the historic 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education Supreme Court desegregation ruling — is an attempt to alter the usual practice of districting students to schools exclusively near where they live.

A long list of plaintiffs are involved in the lawsuit, including the Latino Action Network, New Jersey NAACP, Urban League of Essex County and nine minor students. The defendants named include the state of New Jersey, the state Department of Education and the 2018 Education Commissioner Lamont Repollet.

Plaintiff attorneys have argued that the reason the lawsuit has been delayed for so long is because Gov. Phil Murphy and his administration have continued to fight the effort and that politics played a role in not pushing the case forward.

When the lawsuit was filed back in 2018, Murphy's spokesperson said the governor believed in combatting school segregation and boosting diversity in schools, but since then Murphy's administration has sought to delay the lawsuit, according to plaintiffs who spoke to the APP.

Research has shown that desegregating schools and increasing racial and socioeconomic diversity benefits all students, regardless of race. The Century Foundation reports a variety of academic and cognitive benefits, such as increasing test scores and lowering dropout rates, as well as many socio-emotional and economic benefits.

While trying to fix the problem of racial imbalance in schools has no simple solution, many plaintiffs argue that this lawsuit reentering the courtroom could be a step in the right direction.

The full lawsuit can be read here.