Voting maps in Georgia school system are "racial gerrymander," judge says
Lawmakers ordered to redraw voting maps in second-largest school system
A federal judge is ordering state lawmakers to redraw voting maps for Georgia’s second-largest school system.
U.S. District Judge Eleanor L. Ross sided with plaintiffs who argued that the Cobb County School District’s current seven-district school board map is an illegal gerrymander and must be redrawn as the 2024 election approaches. Three board seats will be on the ballot next year.
The Republican-controlled state legislature is being ordered to produce a new Cobb school board map by January 10, a deadline that is unlikely to be met because it is just two days after lawmakers return to work.
The current map was passed by the legislature and then approved by the county board of education. Plaintiffs representing the Southern Poverty Law Center alleged that the new boundaries are discriminatory because they seek to “pack” Black and Hispanic/Latino voters into as few districts as possible.
Judge Ross agreed, saying that the map is “substantially likely to be an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.”
Cobb schools plan to fight the ruling and are hoping that judges in the 11th circuit will be more sympathetic to their defense. Though they were not a party in the lawsuit, CCSD spent about $1 million defending the map in court.
Erick Allen, a Cobb Democratic leader and a former state lawmaker, says the school board map was the most “egregious” voting map in the county.
“I’m glad to see the courts agree that not only was the map drawn to weaken the Black vote but it was also done to hold a Republican majority in a process that excluded the Black board members,” Allen said. He went on to say that he would like to know why Superintendent Chris Ragsdale is spending millions of dollars “to engage in a political process.”
A new map could drastically overhaul the Cobb school board, which has been something of an outlier in the growing suburban county. Republicans hold a 4-3 majority on the board of education in a county where Democrats have won several countywide offices, state legislative races and a majority on the county board of commissioners in recent years.
The Cobb school board has been engulfed in controversy this year. In August, the board’s Republican majority voted to fire a fifth-grade teacher for reading a book about gender fluidity to her students. More books were pulled from library shelves in the weeks following the teacher’s termination.
Last week a local newspaper uncovered ties between three district administrators and an anti-LGBTQ+ extremist group based in Powder Springs.
CCSD has not been immune to the fallout from the war between Israel and Hamas, either. An email message sent to families about the conflict sparked outrage from parents. Separately, federal investigators are looking into a report of an anti-Muslim incident at an undisclosed Cobb school.
Clashes between parents and protesters have made for chaotic school board meetings.