Louisville Courier Journal Editorial: JCPS Board Fails To Find Sound Candidate; Search Must Resume.

Editorial: JCPS Board fails to find sound candidate; search must resume

The debacle that began one chilly night last November, when the Jefferson County Board of Education narrowly voted not to renew Superintendent Sheldon Berman's contract, has come to a crisis point with the selection of two woefully inadequate finalists to replace him.

This outcome should come as no surprise to anyone who has watched this dysfunctional, divided board at work. But the possible consequence — appointment of a candidate who cannot even comment effectively about the most significant issue facing our schools, the student assignment plan — is unacceptable. Selecting a superintendent at this moment in history — when the JCPS assignment plan is under assault and when some of its schools have been labeled “failures” by the state — is the biggest choice to face Louisville in a long time. To get this wrong could mean that our children, and all the rest of us, will pay a terrible price.
Stakes are high

Why are the stakes so high? To begin with, the desegregation of local schools has been perhaps the most difficult and important challenge this community has faced in the past 60 years. Some people literally bled to effect change; opponents of desegregation rioted in the streets, but, in time, the student assignment plan became accepted, even popular, with most local parents and pupils.

Indeed, surveys have consistently shown that the public schools here — which attract an amazing 80 percent of eligible families — are highly regarded in part because people understand the critical importance of diversity to create high achievers and to make our children competitive in a global economy. And the assignment plan is vital in a city like Louisville, which has one of the most segregated housing patterns in the nation and a sordid history of racial discrimination and inequity.

A few years ago, Justice Stephen Breyer characterized the case that overturned Louisville's race-based assignment plan (written by the conservative point man Chief Justice John Roberts) as the worst thing he had seen come through the Court in his tenure. Sadly, this is now the law of the land, and ways must be found to continue to achieve the goals without using race as the basis for assignment.