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Court mulls schools' racial mix

Local schools to feel ruling's effect.

By THOMAS C. TOBIN
Published December 3, 2006

More than 300 students are denied entry into Seattle's premier high schools and assigned to inferior schools far from their homes.

The reason: the color of their skin.

A group of parents sue, saying their kids are being discriminated against - denied equal protection under the law as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.

Their story recalls the 1950s, when the NAACP challenged the practice of relegating black children to decrepit schools. The case, known as Brown vs. Board of Education, went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and led to the explosive decision to ensure equity by forcing black and white children into the same schools.

Now another landmark ruling is on the way.

On Monday, the justices will once again deal with race and education, taking up two cases that challenge efforts in Seattle and Louisville to keep schools diverse.

As in the Brown case, their decision promises to rock the education world.

The ruling will guide large, multiracial school districts like Pinellas and Hillsborough, both of which are searching for ways to promote diversity as the busing era passes into history.

This time, however, the tables are turned.

The defendants are not the stubborn segregationists of old, but school systems that have worked hard to promote diversity - even when no court order forced them to. The plaintiffs are white parents who say the quest for racial balance is shutting some of their kids out of schools - the very thing the Brown ruling sought to prevent for black children 50 years ago.

After hearing oral arguments Monday, the justices will take several months to decide how far school districts can go in trying to keep schools racially diverse. Their decision could breathe new life into the integration movement, which has been losing ground for years, or erode it even further.

Two Americas

Battling for the court's attention are two Americas.

One sees the practice of using race to enroll students as heavy-handed, no longer necessary and an assault on individual rights. The other sees no harm in denying some students a preferred school for what they view as a greater good. The public school system, they say, is a vital government tool to promote a healthy democratic society and prevent the harmful effects of "racial isolation."

If there is middle ground, it is difficult to find amid the white-hot interest on both sides and the more than 60 briefs that have been filed for the court's consideration. The briefs are written by sociologists, psychologists, civil rights historians, educators, conservative and liberal advocacy groups, the Bush administration, the National Collegiate Athletic Association and politicians from Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy to Gov. Jeb Bush.

Success in the classroom comes "not by classifying students separately by race or ethnicity, but by affording equal opportunity to all students and holding them, their teachers and schools accountable for the results," Jeb Bush argues in his brief.

Using race to fills schools "constitutes pure discrimination," says the outgoing governor, who made education the hallmark of his eight-year tenure.

"He's not seeing the big picture," said Latrese Norris, an 18-year-old senior at Lakewood High, one of Pinellas County's most racially integrated schools. Lakewood is one of several schools that could become predominantly black if the Supreme Court outlaws any use of race in setting enrollments.

Pinellas is in the final year of a "controlled choice" plan that caps black enrollment in any school at 42 percent. The School Board, with help from a task force, is looking for ways to prevent some schools from resegregating after the race ratios expire. But until the Supreme Court rules, no one knows what methods of integration - if any - will be legal.

Norris, who is black and preparing for college, expressed concern last week when told how the court's decision could alter the multiracial classrooms she has known since kindergarten.

"Wow," she said in hushed disbelief, adding later: "This is taking everything that Martin Luther King said and ... they're just changing everything back to how it was."

She said school assignments based on race should be necessary components of an orderly society, not much different than speed limits.

A group of her classmates - two white, one black and one multiethnic - agreed.

"Changing it will open a can of worms," said Lakewood senior Matthew Carlos, whose heritage includes Spanish, Portuguese, Filipino and Hawaiian. His best friend is black, and Carlos says they never would have met outside school.

"You can't just say 'Let the chips fall where they may,' " said Carlos, 17, who supports maintaining race ratios in Pinellas schools. "You can't just say that and hope for things to get better. I'm a believer that you have to do some things to help (school diversity) along."

On that point, the students are at odds with one of their favorite teachers, Sean O'Flannery, who this year ran for School Board saying he saw no harm in some Pinellas schools becoming all black or predominantly black, as long as the district gave those schools the money and support they needed.

O'Flannery, a social studies teacher and registered Democrat, finds himself in the same camp with President Bush.

Socializing institutions

Arguing for the Bush administration, Solicitor General Paul D. Clement writes in his brief that the high court's past rulings are clear: Placing racial controls on school enrollment is such a serious step that it can be used only when curing a constitutional violation like the blatant disenfranchisement of black students in the 1950s and 1960s.

Without such a violation, the reasoning goes, the justification for classifying people by race is not strong enough. The administration argues that discrimination against minority students is no longer an issue in Seattle and Louisville and many other cities.

Many disagree.

The American Psychological Association says in its brief that children develop their attitudes about race chiefly from social settings such as school, not their parents. And because most students do not go on to college, public schools often provide their only meaningful contact with someone from another race, the group says.

It cites two studies on elementary school children who were presented with stories and asked to give their impressions of the characters involved. White children from predominantly white schools rated the black characters more negatively than their peers who attended racially diverse schools.

"Prejudice reduction in elementary and secondary education is especially important because racial prejudices and implicit biases are developed early in life and can become entrenched over time," argues a brief by the American Educational Research Association.

The group cites numerous studies indicating minority children in racially diverse schools do better academically. In one study, black students in predominantly black schools scored 10 points lower than their peers in diverse schools.

A brief by the NCAA argues that public schools are "socializing institutions" and that integrated schools help "develop collegiate athletes into positive role models by instilling racial tolerance and understanding."

The brief cites studies that show students from integrated schools have greater success in their college and work lives than those who experience diversity for the first time in college.

Seattle used race as one of three tiebreakers in schools that had more applicants than seats. Louisville followed a guideline that kept black enrollments at no less than 15 percent and no more than 50 percent.

Both districts prevailed in appeals courts, contending their plans were appropriately modest and that relatively few students were kept out of schools they chose.

Still, the parent plaintiffs and others say both plans violate some students' rights. They spoke of long daily bus rides for their kids and of moving to other districts.

"School districts have an unquestioned interest in reducing minority isolation," the administration's brief says. But it can only be through "race-neutral means" such as using magnet schools or assigning kids based on their family's income.

Those who side with the school districts say those methods don't work.

In its brief, the American Civil Liberties Union analyzed five districts that tried to create diversity by enrolling students based on family income rather than race. Three of them saw diversity decline markedly.

In Charlotte, N.C., the number of students increased sixfold at "hyper-segregated" schools where minority students comprised 90 percent of the enrollment. In San Francisco, the number rose to 63 percent, up from 56 percent four years earlier.

The ACLU also analyzed the federal government's grant program for magnet schools, concluding its impact on diversity was mixed at best.

During one grant cycle, 43 percent of the magnet schools saw the degree of "minority group isolation" increase or stay the same, the ACLU found. Diversity increased in the remaining schools, but for most it was an improvement of 5 percent or less.

In short, the ACLU concluded, nothing integrates a school district like using race as part of the enrollment process.

Yet, no such plan is perfect. Just ask the millions of parents and students who have experienced one.

Lakewood High, where about 40 percent of the students are black, is considered a diverse school. But how meaningful is that diversity?

A large portion of the school's white students come for the Center for Advanced Technologies, a popular magnet program known as CAT. Though administrators encourage interaction, many students say there's not much contact between the mostly white CAT crowd and the more racially mixed "traditional" program.

"It's very segregated," said Kasandra Sikorski, a 17-year-old "traditional" student who is often mistaken for a "CAT kid" because she's white.

Still, it's better than not having black and white students in the same school at all, said Sikorski and some of her classmates.

"You can try" for diversity, said Ray Barrett, 17, a white senior.

It is worth it, said Matthew Carlos, the ethnically mixed senior. "You just learn stuff that you don't learn from watching TV or what your parents tell you."

How did these cases get started?

In Seattle, the group Parents Involved in Community Schools sued the school district in 2001 after about 300 high school students, most of them white, were shut out of schools based on an "integration tiebreaker" used to ensure racial balance. Unlike many districts, Seattle had never been forced by court order to desegregate its schools but over the years had tried to do it anyway. In Louisville, four white parents sued the Jefferson County Board of Education in 2002 when their children were denied entry to schools because of a guideline that kept black enrollment between 15 and 50 percent. Once forced by a court order to desegregate, the Louisville district has voluntarily integrated schools since 2000. Both districts defended their plans and were mostly successful in lower courts. The parents appealed to the Supreme Court, which accepted the cases in June.

The original goal of school desegregation was to make sure black kids got the same education as white kids in a time when our society was openly racist. Why do we still need these measures 50 years later? Haven't we progressed to the point that an all-black school would get the same resources as an all-white school?

Some say we've progressed. In Pinellas County, for example, a federal judge has found that the district has eliminated the vestiges of discrimination. Today, the district spends more per student at schools with high percentages of black children than it does in schools that are predominantly white. Still, some contend that in districts where resegregation has been allowed to occur, predominantly black schools inevitably get inferior materials, high teacher turnover and fewer chances to reach academic heights. But the argument has moved beyond the question of equity. Those who support a strong desegregation effort cite research that says racial diversity in schools creates a better society and that "racial isolation" harms all students, fostering lower achievement and less racial understanding. A parent group in Seattle counters that the research is "inconclusive and disputed," and calls the benefits of diverse schools uncertain.

How will the court's ruling affect local schools?

In Hillsborough, where some schools have black enrollments approaching 90 percent, the School Board would like to improve diversity and is watching the case closely. Pinellas is in the final stage of a court-ordered desegregation plan that has kept its schools racially balanced for more than three decades. The school board will look to the court for guidance as it tries to maintain diversity while trying to heed widespread calls for a return to neighborhood schools.

How is the court likely to rule?

After championing school desegregation in the 1950s, '60s and early '70s, the court has cooled to the idea. With three rulings in the 1990s, it sent the message that federal court supervision of desegregation should end and control be restored to districts. In a 2003 case involving a Michigan law school, a divided court said race could be used in student admissions but with strict limits. The upcoming ruling will clarify things for elementary and secondary schools. Given that history and the addition of two conservative justices since 2003, many find it hard to imagine the court would sanction much more than a limited use of race in enrolling students - if that.

The legal arguments

"Racial diversity has very little impact on the paramount goal of public pre-K-12 education - increasing students' learning and achievement."

Brief filed by Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and the Florida Board of Education.

"The function of modern public schools extends beyond basic education to include preparing students for work and citizenship in our multiracial and multicultural democracy."

Brief filed by Seattle School District No. 1.

"School districts that fail to promote integration at the elementary and high school level are thus doing their local constituents and the larger society a disservice."

Brief filed by six prominent sociologists and education professors who have researched race and education issues.

[Last modified December 3, 2006, 07:58:13]