Parents Can Challenge Perpetual
Court Assignment of Pupils,
In Pending Class Actions,
Toward Restoring Local Control
According to the Constitution

The benefit of the return of local control in San Diego has been immediately seen by the Board's proposal to its constituents for modifications as to the assignment of students. No longer could voiced concerns by parents to the school assignments of their children be unheeded by a school board as bound by a pending court ruling.

As in Oklahoma City and DeKalb County, Georgia, San Diego parents can now meaningfully express their views to an elected board of education as to student assignment in the republican form of government — local control — designed for their education. The Supreme Court decisions in Dowell and Freeman offer a constitutional basis for similarly restoring local control to the thousands of parents in the hundreds of class actions remaining under court supervision.
 

Other Parents, with their Counsel, can rely upon the Constitution to Restore Local Control of Student Assignment From Class Actions

Groundswell parents and their children — not the school board being sued — were the real parties in interest concerning judicial assignment of their children. They lacked the finances to necessarily oppose it in court but their right to constitutionally oppose it was eagerly asserted by their pro bono lawyer-parent. This dedication to restoration of local control of the education of their children according to the Constitution is shared with such parents by many parent-lawyers. For this and other reasons set forth in the Conclusion, such parents can anticipate a similar response of pro bono assistance, if needed, aided by the experience of the Groundswell parents.

It will depend upon such parents to obtain such lawyers, in many cases, to regain local control of the education of their children from class actions against their school boards, to which they are not parties. For they must first gain legal representation to present their special interest in local control where, over ten years after Dowell, it appears few school boards have tried to terminate court supervision.

The efforts of parents and their legal counsel to restore the democratic processes in their public school districts will not be easy, as is pointed out by Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in his concurring opinion in
 

Carlin v. Board of Education, San Diego Unified School District,
San Diego Superior Court No. 303800 (1967-1998)
San Diego, California
 

Dowell 

Board of Ed. of Oklahoma City v. Dowell, 498 U.S. 237 (1990)
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
 

Freeman 

Freeman v. Pitts, 503 U.S. 467, 112 S.Ct. 1430 (1992)
DeKalb County School System (DCSS),
DeKalb County, Georgia
 

— Handbook: Challenge Six, pages 75 - 84 —