Schools in communities with strong tax bases generally provide better learning environments than those in communities with strained tax bases. This reality looks to be at the heart of another Mississippi racial inequity lawsuit kept alive by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

“A federal appeals court has affirmed that Mississippi parents may pursue a lawsuit that says the state allows grave disparities in funding between predominantly black and predominantly white schools,” wrote Emily Wagster Pettus for the Associated Press. The full circuit panel voted 9 to 8 earlier this year. .

Federal Judge William H. Barbour had dismissed the lawsuit in 2019. A three-judge panel from the 5th Circuit overturned his ruling. The state appealed to the full court but lost.

The lawsuit was filed in 2017 by the Southern Law Policy Center against state officials on behalf of several “low-income black women.” They contend, Wagner wrote, that the schools their children and other black children attended “were in worse condition and had lower academic performance than some wealthier, predominantly white schools.”

“More than 100 years since Reconstruction and 66 years after Brown v. Board, Mississippi continues to operate two types of schools: high-performing schools for white children and failing schools for black children,” Southern Poverty Law Center attorney Will Bardwell said.

No and yes.

The state does not operate schools. Local school boards and superintendents do. The state provides most of the funding for school operations. Local communities provide most of the funding for school facilities. And better off communities provide additional funding for teacher salaries and other enhancements.

In Mississippi, poverty rates are overwhelming for blacks but around the national average for whites. Consequently, communities with high levels of impoverished black populations face a double whammy. Children living in poverty face more learning challenges which impacts school performance. Communities with high poverty rates tend to have weak tax bases making it hard to afford topnotch school facilities and enhance pay to attract and retain good teachers.

The sticky wicket for the state lies in Section 201 of our state constitution which puts the burden for school maintenance and support on the Legislature, not school boards and communities.

Unless the state appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court, the case will go forward in Mississippi next year. The difficult issue facing the state is not intentional discrimination but whether the school disparities cited by the plaintiffs arise from a “vestige of segregation” that can be practically eliminated.

That was the core issue in the 2016 Cleveland School District case, just as it was in the Ayers higher education desegregation case. As one of the negotiators of the Ayers settlement, I can testify that resolving such vestiges can be costly.

For example, should the court on remand find that the Legislature’s funding mechanism is a vestige of segregation, it could well order the state to take over funding for school facilities and bring all school buildings across the state up to a minimum standard. Of course, as in Ayers, much more could be included.

“For one law and one rule shall be for you and for the stranger who sojourns with you” – Numbers 15:6.

Crawford is a syndicated columnist from Jackson.