School reform becomes a civil rights issue

Parents and students from seven cities are joining those in Chicago in filing civil rights complaints against school closings, phase-outs and other “rampantly horrible” reform upheavals they contend have disproportionately victimized minority communities, school activists said Thursday.

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Brown said that residents of New York City; Detroit; Washington, D.C.; Boston; Atlanta; Wichita, Kan.; and Eureka, Miss., were filing complaints with the U.S. Department of Education, alleging that school closings and other “reform” efforts in those cities had disproportionately impacted African American and Hispanic students, thereby violating their civil rights.