LAUSD drops policy of assigning teachers by race

08-26-2010

By Susan Abram/Torrance Daily Breeze

A civil rights group has dropped its lawsuit challenging Los Angeles Unified's race-based policy of assigning teachers to specific schools after the district voted to halt the practice, attorneys said Wednesday. The lawsuit, filed in 2005 by the Pacific Legal Foundation, claimed the nation's second-largest district violated the state constitution by considering teachers' race when making school assignments. Attorneys for the foundation said LAUSD tried to achieve racial balance by choosing one applicant for a campus transfer over another, based on race, in order to mirror the district's demographic makeup. LAUSD voted in March to drop the so-called teacher integration transfer program after negotiating with United Teachers Los Angeles. A.J. Duffy, president of the teachers union, did not return phone calls Wednesday. District officials said the transfer policy was developed in response to a federal civil rights investigation more than 30 years ago, when LAUSD's teachers and student body were predominantly white. "As demographics changed significantly over time, the program outlived its usefulness," according to a statement from the LAUSD. (more…)

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LAUSD drops policy of assigning teachers by race

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