‘Just code for race’: School programs being shuttered for being too white

A school district in Wisconsin is facing the possibility of a legal challenge after it announced plans to shutter some programs for being “too white.”

Technically, according to the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, the district’s objections are that the students in the programs are “not as diverse as the district’s overall population.”

“To be sure, you view higher populations of white students in any given program or school as a negative factor that must be corrected,” the legal team told district officials in the Wauwatosa School District.

WILL explained that a legal action could result.

“Around the country, woke school boards are closing schools and shifting programs because they don’t like the racial makeup,” explained Dan Lennington, lawyer for WILL. “This is illegal and immoral race discrimination. (The school) should resist this plan or face the consequences.”

WILL reported Wauwatosa officials announced plans “to shut down the Wauwatosa STEM school, currently ranked the third-best elementary school in Wisconsin by U.S. News and World Report.”

Further, officials want to dump “other STEM-specific programs and opportunities district-wide because the programs are too white.”

However, the lawyers explained in the letter federal law and the U.S. Constitution prohibit school districts from implementing policies to “racially balance” student populations.

If needed, WILL said it will bring a civil action against the district.

“According to the district website, a task force is proposing to fix several ‘challenges’ and ‘concerns’ in the district, including the fact that in certain programs and schools, the ‘student population [ ] not as diverse as the District’s overall population.’ This is just code for race, and the district’s desire to shift around students to have a preferable balance,” the legal team said.

However, “Title VI asserts that all students must be treated equally, without regard to race.”

Its letter said public documents already show “you are making recommendations on which programs to offer and which schools to operate based on the racial demographics of the students using those programs (at least in part). Race-based decision-making like this violates the constitutional guarantees of equal protection. You seem to be under the impression that you have the power to manage the racial composition of classrooms. You don’t.”

The legal team also called on the district to release communications about the scheme, including “emails sent by or to any member” of the board that discusses racial balance or diversity.