By Victor Skinner
EAGnews.org

WASHINGTON, D.C. – A community group’s assertion that 15 planned school closures in the District of Columbia are discriminatory was rejected in court this week when a U.S. district judge refused to grant an injunction halting the move.

The judge decided against halting the planned closures because city officials “are actually transferring children out of weaker, more segregated and under-enrolled schools,” according to a 31-page ruling this week against Empower DC, a group of parents and neighborhood commissioners who filed the lawsuit, according to the Washington Post.

MORE NEWS: From Classroom to Consulate Chef: Culinary Student Lands Dream Job at U.S. Embassy in Paris

Empower DC asked U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg to stop city officials from closing the half-empty schools until the legal case against the decision can be heard in a full trial.

The community group claims D.C. officials committed racial discrimination when they decided to close schools with predominantly black and Hispanic students. Students would suffer “irreparable harm” if closures go through, the group said.

Boasberg honed in on the obvious problem with the Empower DC’s argument: The students affected will be better for it, because they’ll be in more racially integrated, higher-achieving schools.

The community group’s request to keep the violent, segregated, poorly performing schools open “seems curious, given that these are the conditions most people typically endeavor to escape,” Boasberg wrote, according to the Post.

That’s what doesn’t make sense. If Empower DC – and other community groups fighting to keep failing schools open across the country – were sincere in their efforts to erase discrimination and provide a better education for students, they would support moving minority students into more racially diverse, higher scoring schools.

But we suspect the true motivation behind the resistance has more to do with maintaining union jobs than actual educational concerns. Most of the “community” groups advocating against closures have close if not direct ties to teachers unions. It appears some people are willing to sell out students for their own personal gain.

MORE NEWS: Know These Before Moving From Cyprus To The UK

The irony is the judge’s ruling in DC was issued the same day as Chicago Teachers Union lawyers filed two complaints in federal court arguing essentially the same points as Empower DC regarding planned school closings in that city.