Desegregation Litigation Oversight Subcommittee – July 14, 2009
Posted on July 14th, 2009
Date & Time: Tuesday, July 14, 2009 at 2:30 AM
Location: Room 151, State Capitol
Agenda: http://tr.im/skcP
Attachments: none
The Desegregation Litigation Oversight Subcommittee shall have the authority and duty to monitor the implementation of the Pulaski County School Desegregation Case Settlement Agreement and to monitor the state’s participation in any future desegregation case in which the Department of Education or the State Board of Education is a defendant, or both. (A.C.A. 10-3-1501)
This meeting is being held jointly with the Public School Desegregation Lawsuit Resolution Task Force.
2:37 pm – The Desegregation Litigation Legislative Oversight Committee was established by Title 10 Section 3 of the Arkansas Code.
2:39 pm – Mr. Scott Richardson, the Assistant Attorney General from the Office of the Attorney General is providing background about the case. The Little Rock school district has been declared “unitary.” The Pulaski County and North Little Rock School Districts have not. The judge that had been hearing the case recently recused himself. There has also been an unfortunate death in another person involved.
2:41 pm – There had been a meeting scheduled before Judge Wilson before he recused himself. The A.G. Office stated that there goal was to get the cases out of court so that they can move forward to declare the district unitary. The hold up is currently the Federal Courts.
2:43 pm – The federal court will have to release the school districts from supervision before the funding can be returned to control of the legislature. There are questions about how the funding might be “wound down”.
2:44 pm – It is not clear if the State of Arkansas be can be released if this cannot be resolved in court. Do the school districts have to be declared completely unitary or simply key areas in the settlement agreement? Sen. Thompson is asking what obligation the State of Arkansas has to continue funding desegregation funding once the courts declare the school districts to be “unitary.”
2:48 pm – Apparently the new judge is not ready to start setting hearings. Sen. Thompson asked if the state had filed any motions to seek release from funding? Mr. Richardson said those would not be strong motions to make until the declaration is made that the school is unitary.
2:52 pm – The A.G. Office has asked for the court to set a timeline and deadlines for the hearings about one month ago.
2:53 pm – Sen. Hendren is asking questions of why the Attorney General did not “throw a fit” when the judge failed to make the meetings they had agreed to. Mr. Richardson says that “if the judge won’t set hearings, there is not much we can do about it.”
2:56 pm – Sen. Hendren asked how much this was costing the states? Answer: $60,000,000.00 per year. It totals to $700,000,000.00 so far. Sen. Hendren made the point that there is no motivation for the parties involved to resolve the issue and take care of the things that need to be done to achieve unitary status because they will lose funding once it is done. He made the point that we need to be proactive to move forward.
2:58 pm – Sen. Hendren asked if the A.G. has a time frame to for getting this resolved. Mr. Richardson says that if the judge must do it, and he doesn’t like it either, but that is the boundaries he must work within.
3:02 pm – Sen. Hendren said that if the A.G. office cannot press the federal judge to expedite, then maybe the legislature should do it. However, Sen. Hendren did not make a motion to do so.
3:30 pm – I just recieved a printout prepared by the Arkansas Bureau of Legislative Research, the total actual expenditures is $845,504,403.00 ! That will be more than a BILLION before the next session is complete.
3:06 pm – Sen. Jimmy Jeffress is asking if there is any incentive for the school district. Mr. Richardson said that a desire to properly serve their students should be the incentive to achieve unitary status. He said that if they have indeed properly served their students, then they may already be unitary but don’t want to declare it due to a lost of funding.
3:16 pm – Mr. Chris Heller, the attorney who represents the Little Rock School District, is presenting an update on the Little Rock School district, which has been declared unitary. The other two districts have filed petitions to be declared unitary. The Little Rock School District has filed a settlement proposal with the Attorney General’s Office on January 23, 2009 and has not had a response. They have requested a reimbursement of attorney fees required to reach unitary status which the attorney general’s office has not responded to that.
3:19 pm – Mr Heller states that while the school districts may have met their obligations, the legislature needs to ask if it have complied with the state’s obligations. [Commentary: This is a foreshadowing of what the next step after the federal courts eventually decide that the all the school districts are unitary. That should take another twenty years worth of stalling and litigation.]
3:22 pm – Robert Thompson is asking a follow up question asking how Mr. Heller believes that the State of Arkansas has not lived up to its obligations. That probably will end up being the position of the Little Rock School District since it is being presented to their school board by their attorney. Robert Thompson is asking for specifics. Mr Heller is vaguely saying it is because the charter schools and their failure to get prior federal court approval.
3:28 pm – I have to give it to the Little Rock School District credit. They have played this well. They have established that they are unitary, which is required for them to say that they are actually doing their job. So they have covered their asses, and have countered that the State of Arkansas has not done it’s job so we still have to be giving them money. Apparently the school districts have better lawyers than the State of Arkansas does.
3:32 pm – Sen. Hendren is asking if there is a way to get the parties together to finally get this settled. Mr. Heller claims that the Attorney General can schedule that meeting.
3:35 pm – Lawyers make me nuts. The sit here talking legal mumbo jumbo acting like they want one thing, when really they are not seeking a solution at all. The sole purpose is to keep the money flowing. There is no way out of this through the normal legal process. The only way the state will ever be out of this is by an initiated act that forces a supreme court decision.
3:39 pm – Mr. Ken Kirspel, the Superintendent for the North Little Rock School District is now updating their activites demonstrating compliance with the deseg plan.
3:44 pm – Mr. Ken Kirspel said that he would agree with the Little Rock School districts proposal for settlement. He also is claiming that even if unitary settlement is achieved that he also does not think it removes the obligation of the state to continue to provide the additional funding.
3:47 pm – Mr. Sam Jones, with the Pulaski County Special School District is updating their progress to achieve unitary status. Apparently they had not even created a checklist until a question was asked by Sen. Hendren a couple of years ago. The plan has now progressed to a report that was submitted the state Dept. of Education on June 11, 2009. They do not seem to be claiming that they are currently unitary.
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