Education Law Center joins lawsuit alleging segregation in NJ's public schools
A K-12 advocacy organization credited with a groundbreaking legal victory that ordered the state to provide funding for some of New Jersey's poorest urban school districts is supporting a lawsuit claiming that the state's public schools are unofficially segregated.
The Newark-based Education Law Center joined the lawsuit in November as co-counsel representing plaintiffs Latino Action Network, the NAACP and several others. The lawsuit, initially filed in 2018, challenges New Jersey's existing system of assigning students to neighborhood schools based on ZIP codes and residential addresses.
The suit argues that the decades-old tradition has exacerbated segregation by race, ethnicity and poverty in New Jersey's nearly 600 school districts.
The center also has a pending motion filed in December asking the state courts to grant its Executive Director Robert Kim, an attorney licensed to practice law in California, permission to assist attorneys for the plaintiffs and participate in case proceedings.
The court is expected to respond by Jan 5.
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The center filed a petition Dec. 1, referring to its 50 years conducting "impact litigation" and "representing children in high-poverty school districts" in the groundbreaking Abbott v. Burke case, Kim said in his letter to the courts asking to join Latino Action Network in its case against the state.
New Jersey 'complicit' in school segregation, suit argues
"The State has been complicit in the creation and persistence of school segregationbecause it has adopted and implemented laws, policies, and practices that require, with very limited exceptions, students to attend public schools in the municipalities where they live," the plaintiffs said in their complaint against the Education Department, state Board of education and acting education commissioner.
The plaintiffs include the Latino Action Network, the NAACP, the Latino Coalition of New Jersey, the Urban League of Essex County and the United Methodist Church of New Jersey, along with several minor children and their guardians.
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"This municipally-based system of school districts interacts with longstanding State practices that have fostered and enabled residential segregation to institutionalize school segregation," the plaintiffs argue.
Judge says NJ failed to address school segregation
State Superior Court Judge Robert Lougy in Mercer County ruled in October that the Education Department had indeed failed to address segregation in schools, but his judgment did not disband the current system of assigning children to schools or deem the current system illegal.
He ordered parties on both sides to try to arrive at a solution through a confidential mediation process in December. A progress report was required to be submitted Dec. 16.
Lawrence Lustberg, attorney for Latino Action Network, did not reply to a request for comment on the mediation.
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly described the involvement of the Education Law Center in a lawsuit that claims the state's public schools are unofficially segregated. The Education Law Center joined the lawsuit in November as co-counsel. It is now seeking permission for its executive director to assist attorneys for the plaintiffs and participate in case proceedings. The story and headlines have been updated to reflect the correct information.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Education Law Center joins NJ school segregation lawsuit
