Gary Orfield Statement on Buffalo School Board Plan

STATEMENT BY GARY ORFIELD ON THE BUFFALO SCHOOL BOARD’S PLAN August 13, 2015
"I am deeply disappointed with the response of the Buffalo Board of Education to the recommendations we presented in May as a means of resolving a finding of discrimination by the federal government. Although the Board made a very hopeful response to addressing the very serious problems of inadequate parent information, it failed to address:

• the findings and recommendations about the criteria, preferential access by students in one neighborhood, 
• the neglect of students from non-English speaking families, 
• and, especially, the totally inadequate supply of academically excellent schools.
•  Nor was there more than the slightest reference to the more structural problems of extremely segregated housing, rooted in a history of city government discrimination, and the need to seek regional collaborations in creating more very strong educational opportunities. 

Our recommendations were not a menu of random items. It was an integrated approach in which the success of each element depends upon the others if the goal is to be achieved. The school district must have a plan that will cure its civil rights violation, either ours or an alternative that research and experience shows is likely to work. It has neither." 

Buffalo News story

http://www.buffalonews.com/assets/PDF/BN800495.pdf

Buffalo School leadership response plan to OCR recommendations 

Superintendent Cash response to School Board/Resolution Agreement