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

Returning schools to the control of local authorities at the earliest practicable date is essential to restore their true accountability in our governmental system. Freeman v. Pitts, 503 U.S. 467,489.

This signals that parents, who believe their school districts have gained unitary status in student assignment, can take action toward ending court supervision in that category. Their most effective action may be by their first gaining counsel and, following the example of the Groundswell parents, then gaining a voice before the trial court as amici curiae. See Appendix. Such a brief could establish that they are the real parties in interest in this category. It could request the trial court, with its inherent power to control its calender, to order the parties to show cause why court control over student assignment should not be ended in the interest of justice.

Parent interest in their children's public school assignment is such that they are the real parties in interest in the category of student assignment and thus are entitled to assert it. Groundswell parents initially asserted it as friends of the Carlin Court in an amici curiae brief, annexed as the Appendix, and reasserted it as intervenors at the trial. Challenge Two, supra, pp. 34-40. Their intervention first as amici curiae and then as intervenors laid the foundation for their ultimately restoring local control to San Diego schools.
 

Class Action Immunization of Racially Discriminatory Student Assignments Should Not Continue Indefinitely

The Los Angeles school board on September 12, 1980 in Board of Ed., Etc. v. Superior Court unsuccessfully sought a Supreme Court Justice to stay the massive reassignments of Los Angeles students court-ordered for September 16, 1980. The status of the case was such that its argument was limited to the “white flight” burden upon the district, rather than the unlawful burden upon the individual students and their parents:

... The board's primary contention here is that “white flight,” which all parties concede has taken place in the school district, will accelerate if this plan is put into effect... 448 U.S. at 1347.
 

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

Board of Ed., etc. 

Board of Ed., etc. v. Superior Court, 448 U.S. 1343 (1980)
[related to Crawford — Bustop]
Los Angeles, California
 

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 —