A civil rights organization Friday called on the Fullerton Joint Union High School District to change the way its elected representatives are chosen to give minorities more of a voice.
The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund wants the school district to switch from an at-large election system to one in which board members would be chosen from specifically mapped-out areas in which they reside.
Messages left with school district officials were not immediately returned.
The demand, which came via a letter sent to the FJUHSD, came less than two weeks after Fullerton officials settled two lawsuits alleging the city’s current at-large system discriminates against minorities.
In November 2016, Fullerton voters will go the polls to decide if they want an at-large system or if their council members should be chosen by district.
If voters reject a district-based system, lawsuits will be back on the table and headed for trial.
The lawsuits against Fullerton alleged the city’s election system discriminated against Latinos and Asians and violated the state’s Voting Rights Act.
MALDEF is making the same claim about the school district’s elections.
“At-large elections in the context of racially polarized voting are not only a threat to voting rights, but also to the success of California’s school funding system — the local control funding formula — which depends upon vigorous input and oversight by the communities most affected by the ongoing education gap in the state,” said Thomas A Saenz, president and general counsel of the civil rights organization.
“As a result, remedying (voting rights act) violations in school board elections is of heightened importance,” he said.
Over the past 20 years, only one candidate of Latino descent has been elected to the school board despite the fact that those of Latino descent make up 42 percent of the district’s population and more than half of its student body, according to MALDEF.
— City News Service