U.S. Civil Rights Official to Investigate State Handling of Compton School District

The nation’s top civil rights official said Friday that she will investigate whether children in the Compton’s troubled public schools have had a fair chance at a quality education since the school district was taken over by the state Department of Education.

U.S. Civil Rights Commission Chairwoman Mary Frances Berry visited Compton to hear three hours of pleas from parents, teachers and activists. Berry said that if she found that the state’s four-year effort to reform district finances and raise student test scores had jeopardized students’ chances to learn, she would recommend a wider federal investigation.

“My impression is there were serious problems here before the state takeover,” in 1993, she said. But she noted, “There has been a sort of revolving door of administrators who don’t seem to have long enough to get anything done.”

The state department has appointed five administrators to oversee the district since the takeover.

Berry said she was not told before her trip that one of Compton’s school board trustees is a paid field representative for U.S. Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald (D-Carson), who invited Berry to the city. Berry said she was not aware that the congresswoman’s representative, Basil Kimbrew, testified in federal court last year that he had laundered bribe payments to former City Councilwoman Patricia Moore, who was convicted of extortion and tax crimes.