On Monday, a civil rights lawsuit was filed against the Dallas ISD. You can read the original complaint. Or you can settle for this summary: the Coalition to Maximize Education and some parents of students claim “that DISD is discriminating against African-American and lower-income students by providing inferior educational facilities and fewer educational opportunities in predominantly African-American areas of Dallas.”
Let’s examine that claim by taking a look at the last two bond programs and how the money has and will be spent in each of the nine trustee districts that make up the Dallas ISD. The greatness that is Louisa Meyer crunched some numbers that don’t exactly support the claims in this suit.
$1.349 billion — amount allocated to poor, African-American districts (4, 5, 6, and 9).
$825 million — amount allocated to “wealthier” districts (1, 2, 3, 7, and 8).
Granted, there are several variables I’m not taking into account. The biggest: I don’t know how many schools are in each of the nine districts that make up the Dallas ISD. Also, I’m making broad assumptions about race and class. Have a look at a map of the nine trustee districts. Calling the entirety of District 5, for instance, “poor and African American” doesn’t make much sense. One more note: Meyer couldn’t account for every dollar in the two bond programs by district, so some of the money is missing from this accounting.
