By The Editors

In April 2008, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF), the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Center for Children’s Advocacy and cooperating attorneys announced a settlement with the state of Connecticut in Sheff v. O’Neill, the long-fought case challenging racial segregation in Hartford public schools.

The agreement requires the state to expand integrated educational opportunities for Hartford minority students within the next five years in order to meet the demand of Hartford schoolchildren for racially integrated school settings.

John Payton, LDF President and Director-Counsel, described the agreement in the 12-year-old case as “a critical step in our long journey to end segregation in Hartford’s public schools.”

On January 10, the Hartford Courant editorialized that Connecticut’s fiscal crisis cannot be a barrier to implementation of the agreement, despite the difficulty of funding the region’s Sheff-related integration program this year, and the need for federal aid for the project.

The Editorial Board also notes: “A better goal would be to end economic isolation, since poverty, not race, is the chief culprit in the disparity between city students’ overall achievements and that of more affluent suburbanites.”

Read the full editorial