LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) -- In a move decried by some as state-sponsored segregation, the Legislature voted Thursday to divide the Omaha school system into three districts -- one mostly black, one predominantly white and one largely Hispanic.
Supporters said the plan would give minorities control over their own school board and ensure that their children are not shortchanged in favor of white youngsters.
Republican Gov. Dave Heineman signed the measure into law.
Omaha Sen. Pat Bourne decried the bill, saying, "We will go down in history as one of the first states in 20 years to set race relations back."
"History will not, and should not, judge us kindly," said Sen. Gwen Howard of Omaha.
Attorney General Jon Bruning sent a letter to one of the measure's opponents saying that the bill could be in violation of the Constitution's equal-protection clause and that lawsuits almost certainly will be filed.
But its backers said that at the very least, its passage will force policymakers to negotiate seriously about the future of schools in the Omaha area.
The breakup would not occur until July 2008, leaving time for lawmakers to come up with another idea.
"There is no intent to create segregation," said Omaha Sen. Ernie Chambers, the Legislature's only black senator and a longtime critic of the school system.
He argued that the district is already segregated, because it no longer buses students for integration and instead requires them to attend their neighborhood school.
Chambers said the schools attended largely by minorities lack the resources and quality teachers provided others in the district. He said the black students he represents in north Omaha would receive a better education if they had more control over their district.
Coming from Chambers, the argument was especially persuasive to the rest of the Legislature, which voted three times this week in favor of the bill before it won final passage on the last day of the session.
Omaha Public Schools Superintendent John Mackiel said the law is unconstitutional and will not stand.
"There simply has never been an anti-city school victory anywhere in this nation," Mackiel said. "This law will be no exception."
The 45,000-student Omaha school system is 46 percent white, 31 percent black, 20 percent Hispanic, and 3 percent Asian or American Indian.
Boundaries for the newly created districts would be drawn using current high school attendance areas. That would result in four possible scenarios; in every scenario, two districts would end up with a majority of students who are racial minorities.
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
It surprises me that one of the people speaking out in support of this law is Black. On the one hand I look at it and say of course it is segregation, but then you look at the lack of progress with the way the school system is set up now and I wonder why not give it a try and see what happens. Can it be any worse?
It's always touchy to mention crime or lack of education and minorities. All I can say is what I have seen on tv and in person. I remember going to high school where it was predominatly white and latino. There were rarely any fights or problems. There was no graffiti on the walls. There were the occasional problem. There was infact a murder a year or two before I began attending, but it was unrelated to race or gangs.
I remember always hearing everyone talk about my school as being that gang infested one with all those mexicans there. What bullshit. Yes there were gangs. I happend to be friends with the majority of them because I had grown up with them. It actually worked to my advantage because I never had any problems with people because they knew if they had a problem with me, the gang members would support me.
In reality there were very few problems with gangs or violence at the school.
There was also one other missing ingredient. We had maybe 5 black people total in the entire school for the 4 years I went there.
Now they have many more problems at the school. At the beginning of the year they had to bring in Swat and lock the school down due to large fights between the black groups and the latino groups. There are a lot more black students then when I attended.
Now before anyone starts yelling at me for being racist I am not saying the black people are causing the problems. Clearly though it is apparent that the black and latino groups don't like each other.
Los Angeles has been in the news a lot recently for major fights near to the point of riots at several schools because of problems between the black students and the latino students..
Los Angeles street gangs have always hated each other pretty much along racial lines.
So what do you think? Is it worth a try to seperate the races and see if things improve.
This law relates more to highering practices, money issues and so forth as well. I just don't have any first hand knowledge about those things. Maybe if someone else does they can relate their opinions on that.