Memo from Hershkoff to Counsel Re: Income-Based Busing in Wisconsin and Newsclipping

    TO: 

FROM: 

RE: 

AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION 
132 WEST 43RD STREET 
NEW YORK, N.Y. 10036 

August 13, 1992 

MEMORANDUM 

Sheff Litigation Yeam 

Helen Hershkoff.: ~ 

Income-Based Busing in Wisconsin 

The attached article gives an up-date on the income-based busing plan in La 

Cross, Wisconsin. According to the article school board members have been ousted 

because of their support of the plan. The plan is going forward despite opposition 

from a majority of the school board. 

 



  

Education Week, August 5, 

By Peter Schmidt 

The La Crosse, Wis., schools will 

go ahead this fall with a plan to bus 
elementary pupils based on family 
income, despite a new school-board 
majority that opposes the idea. 

Rather than dismantle the plan in 

time for the new school year, the 

board voted 5 to 4 last week to survey 

the parents of elementary children to 

find out which schools they prefer. 
The board made no promises to 

grant parents’ wishes, but indicated 

that it would try to accommodate 

those who object to their children’s 

assignments under the plan. 
Voters in a recall election last 

month ousted four board members 
who had backed the plan, replacing 
them with candidates who pledged   

1992 

to lower taxes and to oppose busing 
for socioeconomic integration. 

The four new members joined two 

others who defeated incumbents sup- 
porting the plan in regular board elec- 
tions in April. The July recall election 
forced two other incumbents on .he 
nine-member board into run-off elec- 
tions to be held Aug. 11. 

An organization called Recall 
Alliance earlier this year targeted 
for ouster the eight board members 
who voted in January to adopt the 

‘apparently unprecedented income- 
based student-assignment plan. 
(See Education Week, Oct. 30,1991.) 

Integrating Hmong Students 

The board's decision to survey the 

parents of the district's 3,500 elemen- 
tary students came after a tense two- 

page 1 of 1 

[a Crosse To Push Ahead With Income-Based Busing Plan 

  

  

Wis. district to 
proceed despite 
new opposition 
on school board. 
  

hour meeting in which all 23 resi- 
dents who addressed the board spoke 

in defense of the busing plan. 
Thai Vue, a Hmong parent, re- 

ceived a standing ovation from a 
crowd of about 200 when he ap- 
pealed to the board to continue the 
busing plan, which was primarily 
intended to disperse the district's 
population of poor Hmong students.   

The previous board, asked to re- 
draw the district's attendance bound- 

aries to fill two new schools, had also 

| taken the goal of socioeconomic bal- 
ance into account when approving 
new boundaries in January. 

At the time, the 29 percent of stu- 
dents who qualified for federally 
subsidized lunches were distributed 
unevenly. Their share of the enroll- 

ment in individual schools ranged 
from 4 percent to 68 percent. 

Richard Swantz, the district's su- 
perintendent, had proposed redis- 
tributing low-income students so 
they would make up no fewer than 

15 percent and no more than 50 per- 
cent of any school’s population. 

“We have strong racial segregation 

here and very poor test scares because 

of it,” John D. Parkyn, the board's re-   

cently ousted president, said last 
week. He asserted that the district 
had been harming its mostly Hmong 
population of lower-income studer: 
by grouping them with pupils with 
the same backgrounds. 

Of the 3,500 elementary pupils, 
about 1,600 are slated under the plan 
to be assigned to new schools, with 
about half being moved to fill new 
buildings and the others being moved 
for the sake of socioeconomic balance. 

Douglas Farmer, a new board 

member, noted that incumbents had 
fared poorly in lower-income wards. 

“The socioeconomic plan was sup- 
posedly going to help certain sec- 
tions of the city,” he said. “Thoee sec- 

tions said, ‘No, thank you,’ very 
resoundingly.” 

But Mr. Parkyn and Mr. Swantz 
maintained that the results reflected 
dissatisfaction with high taxes more