6.28.2007

Brown v. Board Of Education II


You'll see an uproar today and tomorrow over the Supreme Court decision today that "restricted the ability of public school districts to use race in assigning students to schools." No one out there will have time to read and understand what the heck is going on so let me, humbly, try to explain.

Here is what the case would look like if it originated in Wise County (and I'm not doing schtick here, I'm being serious for once):

Decatur has two elementary schools: Carson and Rann. For each entering first grade class, students (through their parents) are allowed to choose which school they want to attend. If one school is more popular, a decision needs to be made as to which students get their wish and which ones don't. The Decatur ISD School Board decides to create a tie-breaker system to make that decision. The first "tie-breaker" is whether the incoming student has a brother or sister at that school. If so, he's in. Next, the student's race is considered. Here's where things get interesting. Let's say that the Decatur population as a whole is 70% white and 30% non-white. The school board has decided that it would be wise to make sure that both Rann and Carson have that same racial makeup. So if Carson had become 80% white (i.e. "too white") then the non-white soon-to-be First Grade students who had selected Carson as their first choice would get preference. In the Supreme Court case decided today, one of the parents of a white kid who wanted to get into Carson, but was denied because non-whites were given preference, sued.

He won. The majority ruled that consideration of race in the application process was unconstitutional.

That decision is a direct result of the Bush Administration. Had a Democrat been in office Alito and Roberts would have been replaced with more liberal justices. Somehow, the Constitution is read differently based upon who is President. Isn't that weird?

You can read all of it yourself here.