New Attack on de Facto

Faced twice with the possibility of ruling on the constitutionality of de facto school segregation, the Supreme Court has twice evaded the issue. By refusing to review a lower court decision that Gary, Ind., was not obliged to desegregate 17 de facto schools, and by refusing to review another decision that New York City was free to remedy racial imbalance, the court has left Northern school officials free to deal with local patterns as they see fit.

But last week U.S. District Judge George C. Sweeney all but assured the Supreme Court of one more chance to meet the question squarely. He ordered Springfield, Mass., to desegregate, and he ordered city officials to present a plan of action by April 30. Then he stayed his order to let school officials file an appeal.

The facts of the case were not in dispute. Of 46 elementary and junior high schools in Springfield, 29 have more than 90% white enrollment. Of the schools' 4,332 Negro pupils, 3,610 are confined to ten Negro-neighborhood schools that produce Springfield's worst students. Negro parents argued that where officials fail to act, de facto is perpetuated by what amounts to unconstitutional "state action."

The judge's uncompromising answer testified to the plaintiff's success. "Education is tax supported and compulsory," said Sweeney. "Public school educators, therefore, must deal with inadequacies within the educational system as they arise, and it matters not that the inadequacies are not of their making. This is not to imply that the neighborhood-school policy per se is unconstitutional, but that it must be abandoned or modified when it results in segregation in fact."

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