Someone in Pinellas County, Florida, is suing the local school board arguing that its failure rate for black students, at 2.5 times the rate of white students, is unacceptable.

"Public education, to me personally, is specifically set up to dumb us down," said William Crowley, who filed the lawsuit.

Crowley said the white-run school system allowed his son to fall behind. His remedy doesn't call for monetary remuneration. Instead, he said he wants the system fixed.

"The facts are overwhelming and not just in Pinellas County, but nationwide, there is a high failure rate of black students across this country," Crowley said.

The problem that this raises is that the suit may cause the school board to point fingers back at the black community.

"Someone needs to point a finger back at themselves and say 'What part do I have in this?' and maybe this community needs to look at itself and ask what part do we have in this," [School board Superintendent Clayton] Wilcox said.

The lawsuit could compel black students and their parents to discuss in open court how they prepare their children for school, both academically and socially.

One critic argues it's not the school's fault that black students are not learning.

"To suggest that the school district can somehow uniquely single out black kids and give them inferior educations while giving other kids a better education is kind of ludicrous," said Ward Connerly, head of the American Civil Rights Institute.

I'd also suggest they call Bill Cosby as a witness.

Categories: education