KNEE-JERK CONSERVATISM

By Jack E. White

Connecticut's Supreme Court broke important new ground last week by ruling that school segregation violates the state's constitution, no matter what caused it. But the shocking thing about the ruling was the knee-jerk reaction of elected officials like Attorney General Richard Blumenthal. "There will be many who are disappointed by this decision, as am I," he proclaimed. "We disagree [with it] and fear the consequences." Even before many people had a chance to read the decision, Blumenthal, a Democrat, had joined Republican Governor John G. Rowland in drawing lines in the sand. No "involuntary busing" to diversify student populations, they vowed. No redrawing of local school districts. No, no, no, no, no.

Judging from Blumenthal and Rowland's quick condemnation of such measures, you'd think that the court had ordered them into effect right away. But in fact, the justices declined to impose any plan to reduce the racial isolation of Hartford's 95% minority student body, leaving it up to the Governor and state legislature. That means there will be ample opportunity to devise an integration strategy that the state's citizens can live with. More than likely, both sides agree, the eventual solution will emphasize voluntary programs such as cross-district transfers and magnet schools that will benefit all students. There was no reason for panic--though state officials' heated rhetoric threatened to produce some.

There are few better measures of how tortuous the journey toward racial equality has become since 1954, when the Supreme Court struck down segregation, than the history of last week's ruling in Sheff v. O'Neill. The case was filed in the state courts in 1989 because civil rights lawyers had concluded that there was no hope of redress from the conservative U.S. Supreme Court. Connecticut's constitution, on the other hand, explicitly guarantees the right to a free, unsegregated public education, which made the state a more promising venue. "We were looking for new ways to breathe life back into the fight for equal educational opportunity, because in the federal courts the issue is dead," says attorney John C. Brittain, the lead counsel for the plaintiffs. The court's decision "shows that the fight for racial justice can still prevail."

But that good news is tempered by the growing willingness of politicians from both major parties to sow racial anxiety in the hope of electoral gain. When a progressive Democrat like Blumenthal, eyeing the governorship, links arms with a conservative Republican against a desegregation decision, it's cause for a pause. To his credit, however, Blumenthal seems to have reconsidered his initial reaction, which sparked strong criticism from Connecticut blacks (reportedly including some members of his own staff). In an interview a few days after the ruling, the attorney general stressed that he has no plans to challenge the opinion; he now sees it as providing an "opportunity" for the entire state to do better by Hartford's minority students. Though his position gives him no formal role in the process, he says he wants to take part in devising effective desegregation strategies that preserve local school districts. Blumenthal had moved from the combative to the constructive--which is where Connecticut's leaders should have been in the first place.