School Boards & Social Engineering

You can read about this story at AJC, and HERE. In Washington and Kentucky school boards have worked to achieve diversity not only in schools, but also by attempting to influence how neighborhoods are populated. Methods including forced bussing that require some kids to board the bus at 5:30am, or disallowing kids to attend nearby neighborhood schools has been challenged by parents. The school boards admit to using race as the sole deciding factor in manipulating school attendance.

People make choices. Parents, home buyers & taxpayers in both cities have decided where they want to live. It amounts to voluntarily segregation, and the school boards cannot allow that!
I listened to the oral arguments presented before the Supreme Court on C-SPAN last night. In every instance, the attorney for the Louisville system dodged giving direct answers about whether race was the real and final determining factor in their policies. The net-net was "YES" they are making every effort to socially engineer neighborhoods and therefore have an easier time achieving racial quotas in schools.

AJC: The school policies in contention are designed to keep schools from segregating along the same lines as neighborhoods. In Seattle, only high school students are affected. Louisville's plan applies system wide.

THE DECIDING VOTE?

Justice Anthony Kennedy, who could hold the decisive vote, joined his
conservative colleagues in expressing deep skepticism about the programs.

The Seattle district seems to be telling its high school students who
are subject to the plan that "everybody can get a meal," but that only certain
people can get "dessert," Kennedy said. He was referring to the fact that some
students did not get assigned to the schools they preferred based on their
race.

Just a few months go the High Court refused to hear these appeals. Now that Justice O'Conner is gone and new judges are onboard they reversed that position. We can all pray that with new members the Supreme Court will reverse the mandate and ability for school boards to tell people where and how to live. The argument that some schools will become "substandard" or "low-achieving" should be addressed by the boards as a matter of professionalism and just doing their jobs -- provide quality education for all students at all schools. It is not for the school systems to dictate, but to adjust and overcome and perform. Just like the rest of us.