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Texas Education Agency
Equal Educational Opportunity
IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS
TYLER DIVISION
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA V. CIVIL ACTION NO. 5281
STATE OF TEXAS,
ET AL.
MODIFIED ORDER
Judge Justice
This Court’s Order of April 20, 1971, in the above-entitled and number civil
action is hereby modified to comply and conform with the directions of the
United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in its Opinion of July
9, 1971, in Cause No. 71-1061, entitled United States of America, Plaintiff-
Appellee, versus State of Texas, Et Al., and Dr. J. W. Edgar, Commissioner
of Education, Et Al., Defendants-Appellants, _____F.2d_____(5 Cir. 1971),
and as so modified, such Order is re-issued, as follows:
On November 24, 1970, this Court entered an order in this case then styled
United States of America v. State of Texas, et al., Civil Action No. 1424,
Marshall Division, requiring inter alia that the Texas Education Agency, the
State Commissioner of Education and their officers, agents, employees,
successors re-evaluate all of their activities and practices relating to the
desegregation of public elementary and secondary education within the State
of Texas; upon completion of this re-evaluation the defendants were required
to file a plan stating specific actions which they would take pursuant to
their affirmative obligations under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
and the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution. On January 15, 1971, the
defendants filed their plan. Plaintiffs filed a response to this plan on
February 1, 1971, incorporating both objections to defendants’ plan and
recommendations for what the defendants were legally required to accomplish
by this plan. An evidentiary hearing was held on February 1 and 2, 1971. A
further hearing was held in Tyler on April 12, 1971, the case then, and
hereafter, being styled Civil Action No. 5281, Tyler Division.
The Court has carefully considered the submissions of the respective parties
and the evidence presented at the hearings, in light of the defendants’
affirmative duty to take “whatever steps might be necessary to
...[eliminate] racial discrimination root and branch.” Green v. New Kent
County, 391 U.S. 430, 437-38 (1968), Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of
Education, Nos. 281 and 349, ___U.S.___, (April 20, 1971). In this regard
the duty of the state appears to be two-fold: First, to act at once to
eliminate by positive means all vertiges of the dual school structure
throughout the state; and second, to compensate for the abiding scars of
past discrimination.
Accordingly, it is hereby ORDERED that the State of Texas, Dr. J. W. Edgar,
Commissioner of Education of the State of Texas, the Texas Education Agency,
their officers, agents, employees, successors and all other persons in
active concert or participation with them (hereinafter referred to as
defendants) shall fulfill those duties
.G. Curriculum and Compensatory Education
(1) Defendants shall insure that school districts are providing equal
education opportunities in all schools. The Texas Education Agency, through
its consulting facilities and personnel, shall assist school districts in
achieving a comprehensive balance curriculum on all school campuses, and,
where necessary, in providing for students to transfer to different schools
in the district on a part-time basis to avail themselves of subjects not
offered in their assigned school. Full time transfers may be allowed only
where they do not adversely affect desegregation as further described in
Section A herein.
(2) The Texas Education Agency shall institute a study of the educational
needs of minority children in order to insure equal educational
opportunities of all students. The Texas Education Agency shall request the
assistance of the United States Office of Education and any other
educational experts whom they choose to consult in making this study. By not
later than August 15, 1971, a report on this study shall be filed by the
Texas Education Agency with the Court including:
(a) Recommendations of specific curricular offerings and programs which will
insure equal educational opportunities for all students regardless of race,
color or national origin. These curricular offerings and programs shall
include specific educational programs designed to compensate minority group
children for unequal educational opportunities resulting from past or
present racial and ethnic isolation, as well as programs and curriculum
designed to meet the special educational needs of students whose primary
language is other than English;
(b) Explanation of presently existing programs funded by the State of Texas
or by the Federal Government which are available to local districts to meet
these special educational needs and how such programs might be applied to
these educational needs;
(c) Explanation of specific standards by which the defendants will determine
when a local district, which has racially or ethnically isolated schools or
which has students whose primary language is other than English, shall be
required by the defendants to participate in the special compensatory
educational programs available; and
(d) Explanation of procedures for applying these standards to local
districts including appropriate sanctions to be employed by the defendants
should a district refuse to participate in special compensatory educational
programs where it has been instructed to do so pursuant to application of
the standards developed under subsection (c) above.
(e) Copies of this report shall be served as described in Section F above,
and a copy shall also be retained in the Offices of the Texas Education
Agency as described therein.
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