MALDEF LAUDS CALIFORNIA SUPREME COURT RULING UPHOLDING AB 540, WAIVER OF OUT-OF-STATE FEES FOR ALL QUALIFIED STUDENTS

LOS ANGELES, CA – Today, MALDEF applauded the California Supreme Court’s ruling in Martinez v. Regents, upholding the California law known as AB 540. AB 540 provides a waiver of out-of-state tuition fees at California’s public colleges and universities for students – regardless of immigration status – who have completed three years at a California high school and have attained a high school diploma, or the equivalent thereof.

MALDEF Enters Statewide Lawsuit to Address Inadequate Funding for English Learners and At-Risk Students

Denver, CO – Today, MALDEF filed legal papers on behalf of several Colorado families seeking to join the state school finance lawsuit, Lobato v. Colorado. The families seek a ruling that Colorado’s inadequate school funding for low income and English Language Learner students violates their rights under the Colorado Constitution. The parents and children represent different regions of the state, including Mapleton, Sheridan, Rocky Ford and Greeley.

Court Denies Texas Education Agency’s Efforts To Stall Students’ Rights To Equal Educational Opportunities

AUSTIN, TX – Earlier today, a federal district court denied the Texas Education Agency’s (TEA) request to put on hold the court’s order that requires TEA to remedy its language programs for English Language Learner (ELL) children across Texas in the long-standing case, US v. Texas. The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) and the Multicultural Education, Training and Advocacy, Inc. (META), on behalf of LULAC and the GI Forum, hotly contested TEA’s Motion to Stay Proceedings Pending Appeal filed just weeks ago and urged the Court to hold TEA to the current deadline of January 31, 2009.

MALDEF Urges Supreme Court To Permit Communities To Create Diverse Schools

Washington, DC – Today, school districts, civil rights organizations and educators urged the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold local school districts’ voluntary integration authority. The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) filed an amicus curiae (friend-of-the-court) brief in the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of 16 national and local Latino organizations. At issue in the two consolidated cases, Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1 and Meredith v. Jefferson County Board of Education is the continued authority of local school districts to take voluntary action to reduce racial segregation and isolation in their schools.

MALDEF Urges Supreme Court To Permit Communities To Create Diverse Schools

Washington, DC – Today, school districts, civil rights organizations and educators urged the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold local school districts’ voluntary integration authority. The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) filed an amicus curiae (friend-of-the-court) brief in the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of 16 national and local Latino organizations. At issue in the two consolidated cases, Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1 and Meredith v. Jefferson County Board of Education is the continued authority of local school districts to take voluntary action to reduce racial segregation and isolation in their schools.

Morales v. Shannon

This class action lawsuit was filed in 1970 by Ms. Genoveva Morales on behalf of her children against the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District at the height of the Latino civil rights movement. In 1975, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit found that Uvalde C.I.S.D. in Texas had failed to desegregate its school system in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The court ruled that the District had violated the rights of the Latino plaintiff class, and the District was placed under a desegregation order. MALDEF has continued to monitor the District and evaluate whether it has acted appropriately to remedy the pernicious effects of discrimination on its Latino students.