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Lewis Loflin view Norton Va.
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ACLU Sues Palm Beach Over Poor Graduation Rates

compiled by Lewis Loflin

To quote from ACLU sues Palm Beach County school district over poor graduation rates:,

Low graduation rates in Palm Beach County show the school district has failed its students, especially minority children, by not providing a "uniform, efficient, safe, secure and high-quality education," according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday by the American Civil Liberties Union. The lawsuit addresses a topic never before challenged in the courts.

The ACLU and other organizations have sued school districts for not distributing resources equally, but no group has pursued legal action for dismal graduation rates. "We're really making a more basic point," said Chris Hansen, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU. "Graduating from high school is virtually the minimum requirement for success. A large percentage of the students are being essentially written off."

This is a new low for the ACLU that ignores the far worst graduation rates of Blacks in socialist-liberal controlled black schools. To quote,

Seventeen of the nation's 50 largest cities had high school graduation rates lower than 50 percent, with the lowest graduation rates reported in Detroit, Indianapolis and Cleveland...The report, issued by America's Promise Alliance, found that about half of the students served by public school systems in the nation's largest cities receive diplomas.

Students in suburban and rural public high schools were more likely to graduate than their counterparts in urban public high schools...The report found troubling data on the prospects of urban public high school students getting to college. In Detroit's public schools, 24.9 percent of the students graduated from high school, while 30.5 percent graduated in Indianapolis Public Schools and 34.1 percent received diplomas in the Cleveland Municipal City School District...

Many metropolitan areas also showed a considerable gap in the graduation rates between their inner-city schools and the surrounding suburbs. Researchers found, for example, that 81.5 percent of the public school students in Baltimore's suburbs graduate, compared with 34.6 percent in the city schools. In Ohio, nearly 83 percent of public high school students in suburban Columbus graduate while 78.1 percent in suburban Cleveland earn their diplomas, well above their local city schools...

Ref. Apr 1, 2007 Kingsport Times-News

The ACLU claims Palm Beach "is violating students' rights to a high-quality education as outlined in the state constitution." 71.8 percent of students across the county (Palm Beach) graduated on time last school year slightly below the state average...The rate is higher than five of the other six largest "urban" school districts in the state, including Miami-Dade and Broward counties. Only Hillsborough County, at 79.1 percent, had a higher rate...more than 80 percent of white students graduated on time in the county last year, only about 55 percent of black students and 64 percent of Hispanic kids did, according to state statistics..."

"The three high schools with the highest percentage of black students - Palm Beach Lakes, Glades Central and Boynton Beach - also had the three lowest graduation rates in the county last year. ACLU officials question the methods used to determine rates, including the addition of students who are pursuing a GED instead of a traditional diploma...

The suit calls for the school district to improve the graduation rates among students in every racial group, students who qualify for the school lunch program and English-language learners. It also calls for the school district to adopt a more-accurate method for calculating graduation rates..."

The real problem is blacks themselves and simply rigging the system to hand out worthless paper diplomas won't help these kids.

Ref. above Palm Beach Post Staff Writers Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Update: as of July 2012 nothing has come of this. There was never any proof of discrimination, etc.