Alabama AG Candidate Fights Desegregation Orders

0:00It's April 2nd. This is Birmingham News today, powered by AI. Alabama's Republican Attorney General Kennedy, Catherine Robertson, is calling out old desegregation orders from the 1960s and 70s. That's still tie-up dozens of school districts. In a recent Washington Post op-ed in Radio Spot, she says these court mandates four schools to factor in race for everything from hiring teachers to gifted programs and even discipline, wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars chasing so-called unitary status. These rules started after Brown V-Board to fight segregation, but now they backfire, watering down classes for high achievers and prioritizing skin, color over skills. Robertson argues it's straight-up discrimination today, especially with no clear end in sight, clashing with Supreme Court rulings against race-based, preferences in schools. Students and teachers feel the hit hardest disruptive kids go unchecked to meet racial quotas, while top talent gets sidelined.

1:00About 40 Alabama systems are stuck like this. Cases like Haraford in Huntsville from 1963, or Lee in Macon County from 1997, draining local budgets on endless compliance. Recent wins give hope that Justice Department under Trump just dropped similar orders in Louisiana and Tennessee from 1966, freeing. Those districts from Federal Oversight. Robertson sees this as Alabama shot, boosted by school choice options that already buzz zip code and race barriers. She's pitching to rep those districts for free and talks with DOJ, aiming for one big statewide fix instead of piecemeal fights. With the right team in DC now, it could finally close this six-decade chapter and let schools focus on real education.