Dropping Out
In Alabama, which makes it relatively easy to create districts, two Birmingham suburbs left the countywide system in the past two years. Jefferson County, which encompasses the city, now has 13 systems to serve its population of about 660,000.
In Tennessee, the majority-black Memphis schools last year merged with the majority-white county district. In response, the Republican-dominated legislature lifted a decades-old ban on new systems and six suburbs seceded, approving sales-tax increases to pay for their plans.
In the Atlanta area, new districts have been proposed by Dunwoody, which is part of the DeKalb County schools. In Georgia, new districts require a constitutional amendment, and Dunwoody legislators want to get one on the ballot. A city study showed a new district would immediately have a $30 million annual surplus.
And, in Dallas, a move to create a district emerged last year. Parents are proposing a system called White Rock in an affluent area east of the city.
New Autonomy
Carving out districts would have been difficult 20 years ago, when desegregation decrees were in place across the U.S., especially in the South, said Dennis Parker, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Racial Justice Program.
“They could not have done this under court order,” Parker said.
About half of the almost 500 districts under desegregation orders in 1990 were released by 2009, according to a Stanford University study.
The Baton Rouge case ended in 2007, the nation’s longest at 47 years, according to the Tulane institute. Supporters of a new school system twice tried to get the Louisiana legislature to put a constitutional question on the ballot that would create a district. Last year, they started working to form a new town, saying it would better their chances.