Lawsuit by Black Borrowers Denied by Navy Credit Union, What Virginia Schools Plan on Learning Loss, Upcoming Events
🎅🏾 It’s that time of the season! Merry Christmas to all!
It’s Christmas Time! Ho Ho Ho!
What Virginia School Divisions Plan to do to Combat Learning Loss
By Nathaniel Cline 🎄 All 131 Virginia school divisions have submitted their plans to address the significant learning loss seen among students in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The plans, published on the Virginia Department of Education website, offer a roadmap for how divisions intend to carry out Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s “ALL IN VA” plan announced this September to combat learning loss through “high intensity tutoring, literacy education and measures to promote school attendance.”
To help further those efforts, the General Assembly this fall allocated $418 million in “flexible” direct aid to divisions.
“I’m pleased all of Virginia’s school divisions have heeded my call to urgently and aggressively take action to help our students recover from the covid pandemic learning loss,” said Youngkin in a statement Monday, adding that he’s pleased “every school division has embraced that challenge and are committed to getting our students back on track academically.”
In the years following the pandemic, Virginia has seen sharp declines in students’ performance on the state’s Standards of Learning tests. The most recent pass rates, for the 2022-23 SOLs, showed little progress compared to the prior year, with numbers remaining below pre-pandemic levels.
In 2022-23, roughly 69% of Virginia students passed the mathematics test compared to 82% before the pandemic. On reading tests, 73% of students overall passed compared to 78% before the pandemic, and writing rates continued to fall, dropping by 4% for a second straight year.
Student absences have also remained high: Last school year, the number of chronically absent students doubled compared to 2018-19 numbers, according to the Department of Education.
Divisions have presented a range of options to address these challenges. Accomack is planning a Saturday Success Academy and will pay 34 teachers to offer after-school tutoring. Giles County will tap into teachers and teacher assistants for tutoring. Albemarle will supplement its in-person tutors with virtual tutors to serve students in some rural areas.
To see all of the divisions’ plans, click here.
Attorney Ben Crump Files Lawsuit on Behalf of Black Borrowers Denied by Navy Federal Credit Union
This week the news hit that the Navy Federal Credit Union has allegedly been discriminating against Black loan applicants. Navy Federal Credit Union is the largest credit union in the U.S. and has the widest disparity in mortgage approval rates between white and Black borrowers of any major lender.
CNN’s report seen below on loan denials features a businessman who was turned down for a loan for a home in Vienna, Virginia:
Crump Law firm press release: Nationally renowned civil rights and personal injury attorneys Ben Crump and Adam Levitt filed a lawsuit on behalf of Black plaintiffs Laquita Oliver and Cherelle Jacob who sought home loans with defendant Navy Federal Credit Union. The lawsuit alleges that Oliver and Jacob’s denials for their home loans are due to Navy Federal’s discriminatory lending practices.
The suit alleges while drawing research insights from a recent CNN bombshell report, that Navy Federal, the country’s largest and most important credit union, systematically discriminates against would-be borrowers by race.
Plaintiffs Laquita Oliver and Cherelle Jacob sought home loans with Navy Federal. According to the lawsuit, the plaintiffs, like many others, were denied home loans because of their race and suffered harm as a result. Navy Federal has approximately 13,000,000 members and more than $165 billion in assets, making it the country’s largest and most dominant credit union.
“The outright discrimination that occurs when Banking While Black continues to reveal itself in the lending practices of many of America’s largest financial institutions,” said Crump. “It is shameful that Navy Federal, an organization that prides itself in helping the families of men and women who served their country, does not give their Black and Latino customers the same opportunities as White customers.”
According to the recent CNN report, Navy Federal Credit Union approved 77% of the mortgage applications by white lenders, but only 56% of the applications from Latino applicants and 48% of the applications from Black applicants. The lawsuit states this disparity is the largest of any of the 50 largest home mortgage lenders in the U.S. and remains persistent, even accounting for more than a dozen separate variables including, among others, income, debt-to-income ratio, property value, down payment percentage, and neighborhood characteristics. The study also revealed that Navy Federal approved a higher percentage of applications from white borrowers making less than $62,000 a year than it did from Black borrowers making $140,000 or more.
“We hope this legal action will stop racial lending discrimination in its tracks and require Navy Federal to right their wrongs,” said Adam Levitt. “Home ownership is recognized as the cornerstone of the American Dream. We will not sit by while that dream is denied to hard-working and deserving Americans based on discriminatory practices and algorithms.”
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ABOUT BEN CRUMP LAW
Through his work, nationally renowned civil rights and personal injury attorney Ben Crump has spearheaded a legal movement to better protect the rights of marginalized citizens. He has led landscape-changing civil rights cases and represented clients in a wide range of areas including civil rights, personal injury, labor and employment, class actions, and more. Ben Crump Law is dedicated to holding the powerful accountable. For more information, visit www.bencrump.com.
ABOUT DICELLO LEVITT
At DiCello Levitt, we’re dedicated to achieving justice for our clients through class action, business-to-business, public client, whistleblower, personal injury, civil and human rights, and mass tort litigation. Our lawyers are highly respected for their ability to litigate and win cases—whether by trial, settlement, or otherwise—for people who have suffered harm, global corporations that have sustained significant economic losses, and public clients seeking to protect their citizens’ rights and interests. Every day, we put our reputations—and our capital—on the line for our clients. DiCello Levitt has achieved top recognition as Plaintiffs Firm of the Year and Trial Innovation Firm of the Year by the National Law Journal, in addition to its top-tier Chambers and Benchmark ratings. For more information about the firm, including recent trial victories and case resolutions, please visit www.dicellolevitt.com.
A Gathering of Prayer in Honor of Senator Lucas and Speaker-Designee Scott
From Costella Williams on Facebook: Community, Clergy, Family and Friends, All members of the Divine 9, Please mark your calendars to come out on Saturday, January 6, 2024, 8 a.m. for an historic hour of prayer as we prepare to send off Senator L Louise Lucas, President Pro Tempore as she becomes the first Black in the history of VA to ascend to Chairman of Senate Finance and Appropriations and Delegate Don Scott as he becomes the first Black Speaker of the House in the history of the Virginia General Assembly!
Portsmouth and Hampton Roads could not be prouder! Hosted by area Clergy. Host Church: Zion Baptist Church: 225 Hatton Street, Portsmouth, VA. Rev. Dr. Kelvin Turner, Senior Pastor. Let’s give them a rousing send off to do the people’s business!
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