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Editorial /commentary Have faith the good faith idea will workGrambling State University’s Alma J. Brown lab school has received the go-ahead from the Lincoln Parish School Board to apply for a federal grant aimed at helping the lab school attract white students.The action of the part of the board should be commended, but at the same time a challenge should be issued to GSU and Aima Brown to make grant program work.Although the Lincoln Parish School system has no administering power over the lab school, rules of the U. S. Department of Education grant stipulated the parish school board must approve the grant proposal; the board, again under the rules, will be conduit lor nearly $267,000 to GSU over a two year period.The three-pronged enhancement program- it will be include recruitment, upgrading school curriculum and cultural broadening-has been called a “good faith move on the part of the predominantly black university and lab school.Alma J. Brown and its predominantly white counterpart, A. E. Phillips lab school at Tech, as well as the school board are in litigation over further desegregation of the two lab schools.Right now, the schools are not under a court order to implement any enhancement plans. Consequently, GSU's embarking on the enhancement program was a strictly voluntary move.The court should be pleased and accept the good faith of the lab school and the schoolsystem trying to reach at least a partial solution before they are forced to do so.The plan, according to parish school Superintendent Fred Higginbotham, is along the lines of other suggestions made in the lab school case.GSU College of Education officials concede there is no guarantee of attracting white students through the program. That is true. But the enhancement plan is a place to start. It puts the school in an enviable “pro-active posture,as College of Education Dean Dr. Burnette Joiner puts it.if the court does rule that the lab schools must begin an active push for more other race students, Alma Brown will be able to point to its program as a local, unordered initiative.It is also possible the enhancement program could head off a court order.The ball is now in Alma Brown’s court. The board has sent it there. It is now Alma Brown and GSU’s turn to take that bail and turn into an attractive package that will continue the cultural traditions of the school and be an inducement to white parents.The task will not be easy. But from the start Aima Brown's motive has been supported by everybody. It is refreshing to see needs recognized and hopeful answers begun before the courts step in.We have faith that the “good faith proposal will work.
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