These racial inequities did
not go unnoticed by the Black and Latino voters of Richardson. And yet,
Richardson’s school board remained persistently white for one reason: the
district’s voting practices. While white students constituted a minority in the
district’s schools, white voters still comprised a majority of the district’s
population. These demographics, combined with an at-large, district-wide voting
scheme where every voter in the district voted in every school board election, meant that minority voters would never succeed in electing a candidate of their
choice. The minority vote would always be diluted against the white vote.
The school board—whether
under the threat of ongoing litigation or by a genuine change of heart—agreed
to end this pernicious status quo. In 2019, Richardson Independent School
District settled. As part of the settlement, the district moved toward a single-member district voting
model. Specifically, it instituted an electoral
scheme that allows voters within a predefined border to elect a board member to
represent them—similar to congressional districting. Two of the five
single-member districts in Richardson were drawn to ensure that Black and
Latino voters were the majority. Voters from these districts later elected Regina
Harris, the first Black woman, and Debbie Rentería, the first Hispanic person,
to serve on the school board.
Richardson was not alone
in making this kind of change. In response to immigration and changing racial
demographics, the late 2010s saw a spate of
lawsuits across school boards in North Texas alleging
violations of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. Many of these districts
settled and moved to electoral systems that gave voters of color greater voice
in their representation. Grand Prairie Independent School District, which has a
majority-Hispanic student population, gained two Hispanic seats on its
previously all-white school board following one of these lawsuits. Likewise, Carrollton-Farmers
Branch, a majority-Latino district, secured its first Hispanic board member in
over 20 years.
