As families’ application deadline looms, many are wondering whether the Madison School District will halt its practice of using race as the reason for denying some white students’ requests to transfer to other districts.
The answer could begin to emerge as early as Monday, the first day for Wisconsin families
to request open-enrollment transfers for the coming school year.
Madison Superintendent Art Rainwater and the district’s legal counsel will confer Monday night with the School Board. It’s possible that after the closed-door discussion, the board will take a vote in open session to stop blocking open-enrollment requests on the basis of race, School Board President Arlene Silveira said.
“This is a serious decision for our school district, ” Rainwater said.
“It is our responsibility to take a very careful look at legal issues facing our school district. ”
Last year, Madison was the only of the state’s 426 school districts to deny transfer requests because of race, rejecting 126 white students’ applications to enroll in other districts, including online schools. Many of the affected students live within the district but weren’t enrolled in public schools because they were being home-schooled or attended private schools.
Related articles:
- Wisconsin Attorney General Says Race Can’t Stop Student Transfers from Madison
- Wisconsin Open Enrollment Closed to White Madison Students
- Open Enrollment Denied
- Madison Parents Seek Court Order to Open Enroll into Monona Grove School District
- Wisconsin Open Enrollment: Part or Full Time
- Wisconsin Legislative Fiscal Bureau Informational Paper 28 School Integration (Chapter 220) Aid, January 2007
- Wisconsin Attorney General Opinion on constitutionality of Section 118.51(7)(a), requiring denial of transfer based on race
Correct me if I am wrong, but doesn’t the MMSD currently use race to stop BOTH inter-district and intra-district transfers?
I don’t know if MMSD is denying transfers within the district solely based on race — I’ve heard that is true, but I don’t have any facts to back that up.
Section 118.51(7)(a) does not apply to intradistrict transfers.
“(7) Racial Balance. (a) The school board of a school district that is eligible for aid under subch. VI of ch. 121 shall reject any application for transfer into or out of the school district made under this section if the transfer would increase racial imbalance in the school district.”
But, you raise a good point, David. The AG opinion only concerns the above section and 2007 ASSEMBLY BILL 517 only repeals the above section, without directly addressing intradistrict transfer decisions.
Further, the legality of subch VI of Chapter 121 (Chapter 220) (“Special Transfer Aid) is not an issue.
My impression is that intra-district transfers are at the discretion of the principals and generally are approved unless there are capacity issues. I personally haven’t heard of any instances where race was used as a criteria for approval or denial of an intra-district transfer.
We applied for a transfer two years ago and my son was approved from Thoreau to Van Hise, but my daughter (5th grade) was not because the 5th grade class was too large. They are both of mixed heritage (east indian/caucasian) and I felt after talking to the Principal that it really was that they had a huge 5th grade that year, but a small 1st grade. I’m trying again this year, so we’ll see. There is actually no place to put race on the application/or gender for that matter. He’s not been a MMSD student yet, but I’m sure they could find out his race. He doesn’t have a student ID….