Frivolous suit costs U-46 school money

The class-action, racial bias lawsuit filed by five Elgin families against the U-46 school district has already cost the students of this district more that $4.6 million in legal fees.

If similar lawsuits filed in Rockford, Freeport and Champaign by the same law firm are any barometer of the ultimate cost to U-46 students, this could end up costing more than $200 million (Rockford) unless the families and lawyers take the U-46 students' money quickly with settlements (Freeport and Champaign).

These are taxpayer dollars that could have gone to pay for something useful, like tuition, additional bilingual classes, books or teachers, instead of going to fight off lawyers and citizens with questionable motives.

Why do I say questionable? Because I could file the exact same lawsuit on behalf of nonminority students.

This claim would be that U-46 discriminated against white students by:

1. Busing whites further and more often than minorities. The town of Bartlett was split in half by the U-46 school board, causing half of the students of Bartlett (mostly white) to be bused 11 miles to South Elgin High School. This is extensive and farther than many Hispanics are bused.

2. Assigning whites to crowded schools, because all the schools in U-46 are crowded, with substandard teacher-to-student ratios, satellite classrooms, etc.

3. Sending whites to schools outside their communities and neighborhoods. Many white students who live within walking distance of Bartlett High School are being sent to a high school 11 miles away, well outside their neighborhood.

4. Closing and underutilizing schools in white areas, while building and opening schools in minority areas. The newest school in the district, South Elgin High School, was built at a cost of $45 million in a minority area. A district zoning expert later hired by U-46 to study the details of Bartlett's interest in separating from U-46 determined that this school should have been built in a more central location, either Streamwood or Bartlett. But instead it was built and opened in a minority area.

5. Providing inadequate math and science services, judging by annual test scores in these areas compared to other school districts.

6. Removing students from many different classes too early, judging by the test scores of the students of U-46 compared to other school districts.

The bottom line is that no one is particularly happy with U-46 leadership, not the Hispanics, not the blacks, not the whites, not the purples.

We have a new superintendent and hopefully a wiser school board, so maybe we could come together and focus on the goal - educating 40,000 kids and preparing them for the real world, where a lengthy bus ride or a crowded classroom might be part of the deal, not a reason to feel persecuted and go to court.

Dick Daniels

Bartlett