Madison School District Facing Class-Action Lawsuit Over Open Enrollment

Channel3000:

he Madison Metropolitan School District is facing a federal class-action lawsuit.
An East High School parent claims a request to transfer her daughter out of the district was been denied based on race.

The class-action lawsuit, filed in federal court on Wednesday, claims the Madison school district discriminated against a white, female student who wanted to transfer from East High School using open enrollment.

At the time, in the 2006-2007 school year, the transfer request was denied because it would increase the racial imbalance in the district. It was the district's policy at the time, but that policy was changed earlier this year after a Supreme Court ruling involving school districts in Seattle and Louisville, WISC-TV reported.

"I believe this district had a policy that was absolutely consistent with state law," Madison Schools Superintendent Daniel Nerad said. "When there was a legal decision by the highest court of the land... that was no longer a factor. I believe the district responded very responsibly in making a change in the policy."

Much more on open enrollment here.

More:

• Madison Schools' Using race to deny white student transfers to be topic for the School Board
• Race out as reason to deny Madison school transfers

Andy Hall has more:

In the 2006-07 school year, Madison was the only one 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, records show.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at October 2, 2008 8:06 PM
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