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Civil rights groups and black parents are suing North Carolina to overturn a 2018 law that allows Mecklenburg County towns to establish publicly-funded charter schools. HR 514 gives predominantly white Huntersville, Matthews, Cornelius and Mint Hill authority to create their own campuses, which the plaintiffs claim amount to separate and unequal schools because their admission preference is for the towns' students.

Civil rights activists and black parents are suing North Carolina to overturn a law that allows four Mecklenburg County towns to develop taxpayer-funded charter schools.

The NAACP and Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law filed a lawsuit April 30 in Wake County Superior Court to block HB 514 as a violation of the state’s constitutional guarantee of a uniform free public education. HB 514, passed in 2018 by the Republican-leaning General Assembly, authorizes predominantly white Matthews, Mint Hill, Huntersville and Cornelius to create town-funded charter school districts separate from Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. Plaintiffs allege the law creates separate and unequal schools because it maintains a preference for students from the towns, effectively locking out students from Charlotte, which has a greater percentage of black and Latino students.

Blacks account for 38% of CMS public school enrollment, making them the largest ethnic group in the district. Charlotte is 41% white, compared to Cornelius and Huntersville, which are 79% white. Matthews is 73% white and Mint Hill is 64% white.

“These town charters will result in further racial and socioeconomic segregation of students not only by creating majority white and wealthy schools using public funds,” said Mark Dorosin, a managing attorney for the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, which represents the plaintiffs. “But also, by leaving the CMS schools even more segregated by race and class and undermining the district’s ability to address that disparity. Decades of education research shows that segregation hurts all students.”

HB 514 allows the towns to use tax revenue to build and maintain charter schools and pay teachers’ salaries and benefits. Plaintiffs contend state law prohibiting municipalities from incurring debt or using “public funds to buy land or for capital construction.” They also contend town charter teachers are ineligible for the state-funded retirement and health plan.
The bill became law without Gov. Roy Cooper’s approval because the legislation was considered a local bill under the state constitution because it only applies to Mecklenburg’s towns.

“Allowing these predominantly white towns to create publicly funded schools that can exclude the Black and Brown students that live in Charlotte is another attempt to push our schools back to the days before Brown v. Board of Ed.,” said Rev. T. Anthony Spearman, president of the North Carolina NAACP. “This legislation cannot stand.”

The North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Branch of the NAACP and CMS parents Gregory Rankin of Huntersville and LaToya Dawson of Charlotte filed the lawsuit. They are represented by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and the law firm of Tin, Fulton, Walker and Owen.
State House Speaker Tim Moore and Senate President Phil Berger are listed as defendants.

HB 514 was introduced following a proposal by CMS to redraw pupil assignment lines to address racial and socioeconomic segregation in the district with low-income students of color primarily on campuses in the east and west while mostly enrollment in the north and south is predominantly white and wealthier.

“Our students deserve the same high-quality teachers, curriculum and facilities that students from white and wealthier families enjoy,” Charlotte-Mecklenburg NAACP President Corinne Mack said. “We are bringing this lawsuit to protect all students’ rights to an equitable education and to help end the segregation in CMS.”

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