ACLU sues Florida district over low graduation rates
Low graduation rates in Palm Beach County show the school district has failed its students, especially minority children, by not providing a "uniform, efficient, safe, secure and high-quality education," according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). The lawsuit addresses a topic never before challenged in the courts. The ACLU and other organizations have sued school districts for not distributing resources equally, but no group has pursued legal action for dismal graduation rates. We're really making a more basic point," said Chris Hansen, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU. "Graduating from high school is virtually the minimum requirement for success. A large percentage of the students are being essentially written off." The suit alleges that the district is violating students' rights to a high-quality education as outlined in the state constitution.
According to state calculations, 71.8% of students across the county graduated on time last school year, up from 66% in 2003 but slightly below the state average. The rate is higher than five of the other six largest "urban" school districts in the state, including Miami-Dade and Broward counties. Only Hillsborough County, at 79.1%, had a higher rate. But the graduation rates drop off among the county's black and Hispanic students. While more than 80% of white students graduated on time in the county last year, only about 55% of black students and 64% of Hispanic kids did, according to state statistics.
ACLU officials question the methods used to determine rates, including the addition of students who are pursuing a GED instead of a traditional diploma. Different formulas cited in the suit, including one created by University of South Florida Professor Sherman Dorn that corrects for the GED students, put the county's graduation rate in recent years at less than 60%. The suit calls for the school district to improve the graduation rates among students in every racial group, students who qualify for the school lunch program and English-language learners. It also calls for the school district to adopt a more-accurate method for calculating graduation rates. It was filed on behalf of about a dozen Palm Beach County students and their parents and is meant to aid students of all backgrounds, said Muslima Lewis, director of the ACLU of Florida's Racial Justice Project. Hansen said the organization intentionally left out specific remedies to allow school district officials to do what they think is best to improve achievement. "I would hope the county would look at this as a positive instead of a negative," he said. "What a lawsuit can do is help focus attention and resources."
Palm Beach County School District Superintendent Art Johnson would not comment on the lawsuit but said he is "absolutely not" content with the graduation rate as long as there are students failing. "You have many students who have very challenging beginnings and the impact of society on them outside of school is enormous," Johnson said. "But, clearly, that can't be an excuse. We don't make any excuses. We know that's part of our job and we accept it." School district officials had known of an impending suit since the ACLU began holding community meetings more than a year ago to find plaintiffs. The school board voted last month to hire outside attorneys to assist the district in preparing for the suit. At the time, school board Chairman Bill Graham called the possible suit "totally misdirected" and "misguided," arguing that most policies that hurt graduation rates come from Tallahassee lawmakers, not the school board.
Source: Palm Beach Post, 3/19/08, By Don Jordan & Christina DeNardo
[Editor’s Note: The ACLU press release on the suit is below and includes a link to the legal complaint. The complaint, which requests class action status, invokes “a 1998 Amendment to the Florida Constitution enacted by the people of Florida to strengthen and define the right to education in Florida.” Similar constitutional provisions have been the focus of litigation in many states challenging inadequate state funding of education. As detailed at the second link, the lawsuit comes during the same week that the federal government has announced that it will establish a uniform method for states to calculate graduation rates. Finally, helpful resources below from NSBA’s Center for Public Education, some brief and some detailed, explain methods for both calculating graduation rates and addressing the problem.]
ACLU press release
NSBA School Law pages on federal graduation rate formula
Center for Public Education on high school graduation rates
Center for Public Education on dropouts