ERIC Number: EJ799014
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2008-Apr
Pages: 10
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0013-127X
EISSN: N/A
The Public Schools and the Challenge of The Supreme Court's Integration Decision
Wells, Amy Stuart; Frankenberg, Erica
Education Digest: Essential Readings Condensed for Quick Review, v73 n8 p4-13 Apr 2008
This past June, a 5-4 majority of the U.S. Supreme Court declared integration plans in Louisville and Seattle unconstitutional because of their focus on race as one factor in assigning students to schools. The Court's ruling in the "Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1" and "Meredith v. Jefferson County Board of Education" cases significantly narrowed options to create and maintain racially diverse enrollments and stabilize districts by making all schools more equal. The legal issue in these cases was whether school officials in districts not under court order to remedy state-sanctioned or de jure racial segregation can use voluntary efforts to stave off racial segregation that would occur if all students simply went to their neighborhood schools. Both districts involved--the Jefferson County Public Schools in Louisville and the Seattle Public Schools--had adjusted their original desegregation plans from mandatory reassignment of students based on race--e.g., "busing"--to programs allowing students and parents to choose among racially diverse schools. In this article, the authors aim to reunite the means and the ends of racial integration in a post-"Parents Involved" era. Drawing on studies cited in the amicus briefs to the Supreme Court cases, the authors also identify two key strands on segregation's harms which are resources/inputs and outcomes.
Descriptors: School Districts, Court Litigation, Student Placement, Student Diversity, Race, Voluntary Desegregation, Racial Integration, Racial Segregation, School Choice, Constitutional Law, Equal Education
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Opinion Papers
Education Level: Elementary Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Kentucky; Washington
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A