On January 15, 1991 the parents in Oklahoma City welcomed the restoration of local control of the public education of their children, decreed in their school district by the Supreme Court, with these words:

(N)ecessary concern for the important values of local control of public school systems dictates that a federal court's regulatory control of such systems not extend beyond the time required to remedy the effects of past intentional discrimination. Board of Ed. of Oklahoma City v. Dowell. 498 U.S. 237,247-248.

This decision was also welcomed by the thousands of parents in the hundreds of public school systems remaining under the regulatory control of federal courts in desegregation class actions. But shortly, on January 22, 1991, a headline in The Los Angeles Daily Journal, “School Officials Nationwide React Cautiously to Desegregation Ruling,” accurately anticipated that officials in those school districts would not readily follow the Dowell dictate to gain release from court control:

“School districts will wait until there is a case that is more definitive,” said Michael D. Simpson, staff counsel for the National Education Association.

A definitive case came on March 31, 1992 when parents in DeKalb County, Georgia, welcomed high court restoration of local control as to the public school assignments of their children, decreed in Freeman v. Pitts. Its decree reiterated that court supervision in such actions be returned to local control “at the earliest practicable date.” 503 U.S. at 489.

Groundswell parents in San Diego welcomed Freeman by immediately moving on April 6, 1992 to terminate the Carlin Court jurisdiction and return San Diego schools to local control. But the San Diego Board, rather than emulate the school boards in Dowell and Freeman, vigorously joined the Carlin plaintiffs in opposing termination of court jurisdiction. The entire burden of restoring local control in San Diego, as related in Challenges Four and Five, was thereby placed upon the
 

Carlin v. Board of Education, San Diego Unified School District,
San Diego Superior Court No. 303800 (1967-1998)
San Diego, California
 

Dowell 

Board of Ed. of Oklahoma City v. Dowell,
498 U.S. 237 (1990)
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
 

Freeman 

Freeman v. Pitts, 503 U.S. 467, 112 S.Ct. 1430 (1992)
DeKalb County School System (DCSS),
DeKalb County, Georgia
 

Board of Education v. Superior Court, 61 Cal.App.4th 411 (Feb.1998)
[conclusion of Carlin v. Board of Education]
San Diego, California
 

— Handbook: Conclusion, pages 85 - 88 —