Racist School System Policies Shut Down!

[spain 0]

Race Based Decisions Coming to an End

 

School diversity programs in doubt

 

By Joan Biskupic, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — A Supreme Court decision striking down programs that use students' race in school assignments to build district diversity reverberated nationwide Thursday as education analysts said it could threaten an array of public school programs.

The dramatic 5-4 decision throws into legal doubt programs that consider race, including magnet schools that use race to draw students from different neighborhoods. The ruling is likely to spawn litigation nationwide.

 

The decision came on the last day of the court's 2006-07 session — a term marked by deep ideological divisions and heated rhetoric. Chief Justice John Roberts announced the decision decrying racial balancing in schools. Stephen Breyer, speaking for the liberal dissenters, declared that the legacy of Brown v. Board of Education was at risk That 1954 case set the nation on the path of desegregation.

 

The nation's schools use race in countless ways, from set percentages of whites and blacks in school assignments, as did districts from Seattle and Louisville before the court ruling Thursday, to more subtle methods that steer minority students into special programs. It will be left to lower courts to determine what policies meet the standard set by Justice Anthony Kennedy, who provided the key fifth vote for the majority and whose opinion dictates the new rule of the case.

 

"There are a lot of districts who will say, 'We don't want to run the risk of lawsuits,' and will simply move away from magnet school programs," said Spelman College president Beverly Daniel Tatum.

 

National School Boards Association executive director Anne Bryant said she hoped schools would continue with "careful race-conscious policies," including magnet programs.

 

Kennedy wrote separately to disagree with Roberts' categorical opposition to racial policies and to say that the door is still open to some district efforts that consider schools' racial makeup, rather than individual student's skin color. He said officials could pursue diversity by strategically considering where to build a school or where to allocate resources.

 

In Louisville, the Jefferson County School Board ensured that each elementary and secondary school had at least 15% but no more than 50% African-American students. In Seattle, a student assignment plan similarly sought a racial balance among high schools. When a school was oversubscribed, officials used various tiebreakers, one of which was race, to achieve diversity.

 

Some parents were denied the schools of their choice and sued, saying the programs violated the Constitution's equality guarantee. "Each child's education is more important than their plan," said Crystal Meredith, who sued on behalf of her son in Louisville.

 

"Classifying and assigning schoolchildren according to … race is an extreme approach," Roberts wrote. In addition to Kennedy, he was joined by Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.

 

Breyer, who read a 21-minute dissent, was joined by John Paul Stevens, David Souter and Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

 

Contributing: Greg Toppo

[isleseeya 124]

Tough call ...magnet programs seemed to be a good idea as my children's prior school in brooklyn had them ..at same time I could understand those who opposed the ideaology of school programs designed / driven by race

 

Thankfully I trust the supreme court as they always make the right / correction decision

 

:stoleelectionfromgore:

[gsmayes 0]

isn't this ruling just a fancy way to stop school districts from sending the scary black folks to their child's school?

[spain 0]

isn't this ruling just a fancy way to stop school districts from sending the scary black folks to their child's school?

 

No. It is a ruling to prohibit the gobment from discriminating on folks based on their skin color. It should be applauded by everyone.

[dread 0]

No. It is a ruling to prohibit the gobment from discriminating on folks based on their skin color. It should be applauded by everyone.

Exactly...the less government intervention the better.

[Yukon Cornelius 3]

spain u must not be well this happened a few days ago .... ah less government... when will that ever happen