Bakersfield City School District and its Failure to Desegregate

Under the Reagan Administration the Bakersfield City School District (BCSD) came under federal scrutiny in 1984 for its segregated schools and practices to limit resources in minority neighborhoods for the benefit of White students (Cummings, 1984).  The scrutiny originally began in 1975 due to the deliberate busing of students to keep Black and White students separate (Barrientos, 2011 ).  In 1978, an administrative law judge also concluded that the segregation in BCSD effectively created a “dual school system” in which Blacks and Hispanics were isolated from White students (Pear, 1984).  In 1982, the U.S. Department of Education referred the case to the Department of Justice (DOJ) for judicial enforcement due to BCSD’s unwillingness to integrate its schools and reduce racial isolation.  

BCSD, threatened by DOJ with litigation, created a “Voluntary Desegregation” policy as a compromise to federal government intervention thus allowing local control to remain.  (Pear, 1984)   BCSD Assistant Superintendent Paul Cato said, ''the Bakersfield community wanted to use voluntary techniques and tried every avenue to prevent the Federal Government from coming in here with a mandatory busing program.'' (Pear, NY Times, 26 January 1984).  Instead of being subjected to mandatory busing or ceding federal control, BCSD would make “good faith efforts” to integrate schools through programs that would attract White students to attend schools in predominantly Black areas and also schools would reflect a more diverse student body.  (U.S. v. Bakersfield City School District, 2011)

Good faith efforts amounted to nothing substantial for children of color in BCSD.  Not only did schools remain segregated, students were even more isolated over the life of the Voluntary Desegregation Policy.  Schools such as Fremont, McKinley, Mount Vernon, and Owens elementary schools had Black or Hispanic demographics as high as 92% prior to the agreement.  Isolation has remained high and the targets to integrate were never met.

Voluntary Desegregation Policy was originally intended to be only a 3-year settlement (Moss, 1986).  Should BCSD be able to keep the racial demographics within the range of +/-20% of district averages, then it would be able to unilaterally declare “unitary status” without a court hearing thus being considered sufficient to no longer be under federal scrutiny for purposes of desegregation.

In 2011, DOJ and BCSD filed a joint motion declaring Unitary Status for the district citing that,

As of the 2009-10 school year, every school in the District except the Downtown School has a White/African-American/Hispanic enrollment ratio within +/- 20% of the system wide distribution, mostly within +/- 10% thereof, and at the "racially imbalanced schools" identified in the Decree the ratio is within +/- 6% of the system wide distribution . (E.D. Cal. Jan 11 2011)

Based on the data available through the California Department of Education database, the Bakersfield City School District never achieved this self proclaimed goal.  Each year, from the 1993-94 school year to the 2013-14 school years there are schools within the district that fail to meet the +/-20% threshold established in the Voluntary Desegregation agreement.  Here is a breakdown by the number of schools in the district that fail to meet that standard:

1993-94: 9

1994-95: 9

1995-96: 10

1996-97: 12

1997-98: 12

1998-99: 13

1999-00: 14

2000-01: 15

2001-02: 12

2002-03: 12

2003-04: 14

2004-05: 8

2005-06: 6

2006-07: 5

2007-08: 5

2008-09: 4

2009-10: 1

2010-11: 2

2011-12: 3

2012-13: 3

2013-14: 4

On its face, BCSD never meets the agreement and is never in compliance with its Voluntary Desegregation Policy.  During this same period, the district becomes even more isolated.  Using a myriad of segregation matrices all indicate a trend where Hispanics and Blacks remain isolated from White students.  Whites, ironically, are less isolated.  This is due to there being less white students in BCSD over this time period.  The data suggests that while there is an increase in Hispanic population, White students have left the district.

The Simpson Reverse Index also affirms that the district as a whole has become more segregated.  On a scale of 1 to 4 is used to gauge complete integration (4) or segregation (1)

As the SRI gets closer to 1, it is showing that BCSD is becoming a more segregated school in 2013-14 than in 1993-94.

BCSD is telling the public and the federal courts that it has achieved Unitary Status.  The School are still segregated and, in fact, never integrated as it was supposed to.  The irony in all of this is that Earl Warren, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court who presided over the Brown v. Board (1954) decision is from Bakersfield.  In fact, he is a product of the Bakersfield City School District.  He attended Washington Junior High School and, in his memoirs and the court opinion, has spoken of the benefits of an integrated system.  That belief and core value was not espoused by BCSD.