Omaha Eyes Alternatives to Breakup: Community Greets State Plan with Protests and Skepticism

Following the approval of legislation that would divide the city's public school system into racially and ethnically distinct districts, many Omaha community members and leaders mid-April 2006 expressed a mix of outrage, confusion, and disbelief. In this article, the author discusses the measure that calls for dividing any school system in the state's largest class of district--Omaha is the only one--into new districts with two or three high schools each and how the community members in Omaha come up with an alternative plan to address an ongoing boundary dispute between the Omaha district and other school systems. Despite the dispute of the controversial state law, some people claim that the legislation that divides Omaha district into three racially and ethnically distinct districts may offer new opportunities for students to transfer between districts by creating a "learning community" among the new Omaha districts and 10 others nearby.