## Facts

- Cincinnati public schools undertook efforts beginning in the 1970s to address racial segregation and imbalance.
- In 1974, the Cincinnati Board of Education adopted a teacher assignment and transfer policy intended to make each school’s faculty reflect the systemwide racial composition.
- An implementation standard stated that the percentage of Black teachers at any school should be within 5% of the systemwide percentage.
- The policy restricted some voluntary transfers and required reassignment of certain teachers to maintain faculty racial balance.
- At a Montessori elementary school, two white teachers were informed they could be transferred if Black teachers could be found to replace them because the school’s minority faculty percentage was below the policy’s minimum standard.
- Eight teachers and their union sued, challenging the race-conscious policy under the Fourteenth Amendment and alleging it conflicted with the collective bargaining agreement (CBA).

## Issues

1. Whether the Board’s race-conscious teacher assignment and transfer policy violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
2. Whether the policy breached the CBA’s provisions governing teacher transfers and assignments.

## Decision

- The Sixth Circuit affirmed the district court’s denial of injunctive relief.
- The court upheld the policy against the equal protection challenge, treating it as part of a longstanding effort to reduce segregation indicators and achieve systemwide faculty racial balance.
- The court held the policy did not violate the CBA, agreeing that the agreement did not prohibit the Board from making assignments and transfers to implement systemwide educational objectives, including racial-balance measures.

## Legal Principles

- A race-conscious school staffing policy may be upheld when implemented as part of a structured, systemwide effort to address racial imbalance and segregation-related conditions, and when the policy’s burdens are limited to placement decisions rather than adverse employment actions such as termination or pay reduction.
- Courts may give substantial latitude to local school authorities in personnel assignment decisions connected to desegregation or integrative objectives, so long as constitutional limits are respected.
- A collective bargaining agreement will not be read to eliminate a school board’s assignment and transfer authority absent clear contractual language doing so; general transfer provisions do not necessarily bar race-conscious assignments tied to systemwide policy goals.

## Conclusion

The Sixth Circuit affirmed judgment for the Board, concluding that Cincinnati’s race-conscious teacher transfer and assignment policy, adopted to maintain systemwide faculty racial balance as part of an ongoing desegregation effort, did not violate equal protection and did not conflict with the governing collective bargaining agreement.


Jacobson v. Cincinnati Bd. of Educ., 961 F.2d 100 (6th Cir. 1992)