The court battle over segregation in some of New Jersey’s public schools is moving to mediation in hopes of a quicker resolution.
It’s been in court for more than five years. A judge recently ruled that segregation exists in a number of districts, including Newark, and said the state can do something about it.
“He did say that municipal and school district boundaries are not impermeable in this fight against segregation and so the education commissioner has the authority to cross district lines to avoid segregation,” said Catherine Carrera, the bureau chief of Chalkbeat Newark, an education website.
Acting Education Commissioner Angelica Allen-McMillan is retiring effective February 1. She came under fire for how she handled learning loss from the pandemic.
Charter schools say they may be the answer. “They want to have charter schools be considered when looking at these solutions because charters are geographically positioned, they say, to draw upon a racially and economically diverse student body,” said Carrera.
Charter schools are not limited to taking local students. They can draw students from different areas.
“State enrollment data show that 30% of Latino students and a quarter of Black students attend schools in New Jersey that are 90% to 99% non-white and that includes districts like Newark,” she said.