(NAME-MCE) Duncan will pressure schools to enforce civil rights laws

[Bill Howe]

*Duncan will pressure schools to enforce civil rights laws*

By Nick Anderson Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, March 8, 2010; A11

Education Secretary Arne
Duncan<http://www.whorunsgov.com/Profiles/Arne_Duncan>plans to
announce Monday that his agency is ramping up enforcement of civil
rights laws in schools and colleges, a move that seeks to draw a contrast
with the policies of his Republican predecessors.


In a speech drafted for an appearance at a civil rights landmark in Selma,
Ala., Duncan said the department's Office for Civil Rights expects to issue
a series of guidance letters to educators to address "issues of fairness and
equity." He said the department will also announce in coming weeks and
months several enforcement actions to ensure that students have equal access
to a college-prep curriculum, advanced courses, and classes in math and
science.

"The truth is that, in the last decade, the Office for Civil Rights has not
been as vigilant as it should have been in combating gender and racial
discrimination and protecting the rights of individuals with disabilities,"
Duncan<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/28/AR2009122802368.html>said
in the draft speech. "But that is about to change."


Duncan is expected to speak at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, where
civil rights marchers were beaten by state and local police in March 1965.

A former senior education official in the George W. Bush
administration<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/08/AR2010010802165.html>disputed
the suggestion that under Republican leadership the agency was not
vigilant on civil rights.


"The Bush administration in the educational context had a very good record
on civil rights," said Stephanie J. Monroe, who was assistant education
secretary for civil rights from 2006 to 2009.



"During the three years that I was there, I think we did quite a bit," she
added.



Monroe said her office focused on swift responses to allegations of
discrimination on the basis of race, sex, disability or age and initiated
"compliance reviews" in areas that had a significant volume of complaints.
Disability rights enforcement emerged as a priority, she said.

With about 600 employees and 12 field offices, the Office for Civil Rights
is one of the largest units in the department. Its annual budget is $103
million.

"You adhere very much to the spirit and the letter of the law," Monroe said.
"That should not depend on who is sitting on Pennsylvania Avenue. It should
be consistent."

Monroe's successor is Russlynn H. Ali, who came to the Obama administration
from the nonprofit organization Education Trust <http://www.edtrust.org/>,
which works on behalf of disadvantaged students.

Ali said in an interview Friday that "we are weaving equity into all that we
do" and that her office would examine potential cases for evidence of
discrimination through "disparate impact" against certain classes of
students on the basis of race, ethnicity, sex or disability.

Ali said the department plans to initiate 38 compliance reviews this year.
There were 29 initiated last year, she said, and 42 in 2008. But she said
the depth of the reviews will be "much greater than in the past."





Diane Sanderson



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