After two and a half years of failed mediation talks, the lawyers representing the plaintiffs in New Jersey’s school segregation have given up on a resolution. Now the Latino Action Network and NAACP New Jersey State Conference are asking an appellate court to reverse Judge Robert Lougy’s decision that, while some percentage of school districts are unconstitutionally segregated (like Newark, Camden, Trenton) others aren’t — or at least the litigants haven’t proven their case. LAN is asking a higher court to declare that the state school system as a whole deprives students of their right to a thorough and efficient education and that the state is liable.

Various remedies have been proposed, although none would, as the litigants argued in a brief Tuesday, address the “long-standing residential segregation and discriminatory housing practices” that assign school districts based on what ZIP code parents can afford. Yet, impasse aside, the state as a whole — certainly students relegated to low-performing districts based on family income — would benefit if we implement two of the suggested tweaks: expanding charter schools which, by their nature, allow them to enroll students across district lines, and resuscitating the dormant Interdistrict Public School Choice Program.

First let’s make this about real kids.

In Trenton Public Schools, what Paul Trachtenberg calls an “apartheid district” with its 99% Hispanic and Black enrollment, the DOE’s most recent data shows that 10.7% of the district’s 15,558 students are proficient in reading and fewer than 10% are proficient in math. (The DOE redacts percentages when it is less than 10%.) Five miles down Rte. 206 in Lawrence Township (disclosure: where I live in Mercer County) the school district is well-integrated (39% white, 24% Hispanic, 14% Black, 17% Asian) and student proficiency rates in reading and math are, respectively, 54% and 40%. Eight miles further down Rte. 206 is the illustrious district of Princeton.

The boundaries can appear arbitrary. On one road that connects the two municipalities, one side of the street is zoned for Trenton and the other for Lawrence. (In that brief filed last Tuesday, the litigants said, “students in New Jersey are typically required to attend schools in the municipality where they live, which plaintiffs said leads to school segregation due to long-standing residential segregation and discriminatory housing practices.”)

Currently, according to the NJ Public Charter School Association, there are 4,200 Trenton students enrolled in public charters, with 2,800 on waitlists. Forty-four percent of charter students reach proficiency on state assessments compared to the district’s single digits.What if a new charter school in Mercer County intentionally drew an integrated enrollment from Trenton, Lawrence, Princeton? What if Trenton parents could enroll their children in a public school that actually gave them a chance? (Heck, we’d save money: the district spends $23,000 a student and the charters average $18,300.)

But they can’t because of politics. In NJ, contrary to best practices, only one person can approve a new charter or the expansion of a current one, the Education Commissioner who is appointed by the governor. That’s why Gov. Phil Murphy, during his first campaign, promised NJEA he’d implement a charter school moratorium. (Matty Yglesias: “The New Jersey gubernatorial primary…seems like a situation where there is an objective incentive for someone to take some positions fearlessly, without regard for union politics.”)

Can we elect a governor, regardless of party affiliation, who cares more about how poor kids do in school that satisfying special interests?

The second possibility for addressing NJ’s school segregation (which, of course, runs downstream from lack of affordable housing) is by defrosting the Interdistrict Public School Choice Program, currently frozen at 125 districts and 5,174 students (which abandons 60% of applicants whose parents are pleading for public school choice). Its growth is frozen due to the current way we fund them and the lack of will to find a work-around. But imagine if we were able to release students from their ZIP codes and give them, for instance, the option of enrolling their children in Lawrence or Princeton district schools with empty seats?

While in NJ we don’t measure the outcomes of those 5,174 students compared to home district average, they do in Massachusetts, which has a similar program called METCO, also frozen. According to research (h/t Chad Aldeman),

“METCO students scored considerably higher on state tests, drawing 49 percent closer to the Massachusetts average in English than their peers by the third grade. They were only two-thirds as likely as their BPS peers to be suspended, and they accrued between three and nine fewer absences each year, in spite of the transportation hassle and time crunch of getting to school miles away from their own neighborhoods.”

Enrollment in New Jersey’s K-12 schools is expected to drop eight percent by 2031. (This is one reason many districts are facing budget deficits and more will; state funding depends on how many students you educate.) What if those empty seats were filled by students from districts like Trenton? Isn’t that a win-win?

Yes, we love our local control and we take pride in our individual communities. But at what cost?