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Order Limits M-to-M Transfers: Schools Without Room Won't Have to Accept Students Come August

Posted on: Wednesday, 22 March 2006, 09:01 CST

By Julie Hubbard, The Macon Telegraph, Ga.

Mar. 22--A federal judge signed an order Tuesday that will severely curtail a program used to integrate Bibb County schools for nearly 30 years.

In his order, U.S. District Judge Wilbur D. Owens Jr. also said he's even considering doing away with the school system's "majority-to-minority" transfer program entirely. Beginning next school year, based on the order, Bibb County schools that are full will no longer have to accept student transfers under the M-to-M program. Since 1978 black students have used that program to leave their neighborhood schools and transfer to majority-white schools across town. A 1978 desegregation order required the school system to offer the transfers, and the federal court monitored the program. But many parents have argued that the program has led to overcrowding in many popular suburban schools. Reaction to the order was mixed. "We're pleased with Judge Owens' ruling," said Brad Wilson, the attorney representing a group of white Bibb County parents who filed a lawsuit in 2004 asking the court to modify the desegregation order. Their children attend schools with multiple M-to-M transfers, relegating their children to classes in trailers, according to the lawsuit. "That was the basis of the lawsuit," Wilson said. "Those schools were receiving additional transfer students and were well over capacity. It affects the learning environment for all students." Bibb County schools no longer needs the transfer program because the system is already diverse, Wilson said. Under the new order, M-to-M transfer students can remain at their current school until they reach the school's highest grade level. For most elementary schools, for example, that would be either the fifth or sixth grade. Starting in August, new M-to-M transfers will not be approved unless the receiving school has room. Fourteen of the system's 39 schools are already full, according to school system enrollment data. Also, schools at capacity no longer have to take student transfers under the No Child Left Behind law, which allows students at "failing" schools to transfer to a higher performing school. The order also precludes hardship transfers or out-of-county, tuition-paying transfers. Charise Stephens, the mother of an M-to-M transfer student, said she was disappointed with the Tuesday ruling. "This ruling is basically the wrong fix for a different problem," Stephens said. "All parents want what's best for their kids. Parents need choices." Plaintiffs involved in the lawsuit agreed to the proposal before Owens' order became final. The judge had allowed a comment period for parents to submit objections to the proposal. Renay Montreuil, attorney for black plaintiffs in the case, did not return a phone call Tuesday afternoon. The school system will post copies of the new order at its board office and on its Web site for the remainder of the school year, the order says. Owens also has proposed lifting the county's desegregation order altogether. It could end the M-to-M transfer program in Bibb County schools and do away with federal court supervision of the school system. Attorneys in the case have until July 5 to file briefs, and a public hearing could be scheduled sometime in September, the Tuesday order states. Several school systems across the country, such as Oklahoma City schools, have had their 1970s desegregation orders lifted. In Georgia, DeKalb, Fulton and Muscogee county school systems also no longer have to comply with those former orders. To contact Julie Hubbard, call 744-4331 or e-mail jhubbard@macontel.com [mailto:jhubbard@macontel.com].

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Macon Telegraph, Ga.

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Source: The Macon Telegraph (Macon, Ga.)

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