Joliet school officials say they will give up their challenge to a law that has let mostly white suburbs detach from mainly minority school districts if–and only if–the governor signs legislation that would make it tougher to detach in the future.
Joliet Township School District 204 sued the State Board of Education and its superintendent in December, arguing that the state detachment statute–as it has been applied so far–constitutes “state-sponsored segregation.” The district asked the court to declare the law unconstitutional.
But under a verbal agreement with Rep. Brent Hassert (R-Lemont), district officials said they would drop the lawsuit if Hassert’s House Bill 2020 is signed into law. The bill passed the House Friday and has been sent to the Senate for debate.
Suburban school districts with high minority enrollments have long complained that the current law makes it too easy for residents to leave their schools for neighboring districts. Basically, the new legislation assures that a school district will not lose more than 5 percent of its property-tax base through detachments unless a high legal hurdle is overcome.
Under the current law, the State Board of Education must grant detachment if a neighborhood meets four non-education related criteria, including two-thirds of registered voters in the affected area agree and the target area accounts for less than 10 percent of the district’s property tax base.
“The law is very threatening to school districts because it allows for huge chunks of the district to be lost,” said Assistant Supt. David Sellers.
Hassert’s bill takes the decision away from state officials and returns it to the regional board of school trustees–the group that ruled on detachments until a 1991 law gave the power to the state. And it dictates that regional trustees use the current criteria for detachments until consecutive detachments total 5 percent of the school district’s property tax base.
But once detachments top 5 percent, residents wishing to leave must meet more stringent criteria. In effect, it allows regional school officials to determine whether future detachments are “in the best interest of the students.”
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“From a political perspective, this is the best thing to do,” said Supt. James Clark.
The battle arose two years ago when a group of white Jackson Township parents filed a motion to detach from District 204, which has a minority enrollment of 52 percent, and switch into Lincoln- Way District 210, which has a 1 percent minority enrollment.
In November, the State Board of Education approved the transfer, ruling that the parents had met the narrowly defined non-education related criteria.
After the November ruling, District 204 officials filed suit against the state school board and the parents who were trying to detach. District officials said they would drop the lawsuit and let the residents remain in the Lincoln-Way district if the law is changed.
But Becky Deutschmann, a leader of the Jackson Township detachment effort, said she wants the promise in writing.
“If they feel this legislation is so important, why don’t they drop it now?” she said, adding that parents would stop pursuing the case in court if the district agreed to do the same until the bill becomes law.