Supreme Court Revisits Historic Issue

Hears Arguments Monday On Racial Diversity In The Schools

(CBS/AP)  Can schools, in the interest of promoting desegregation, use race as a factor in deciding which school each student should attend? The Supreme Court Monday hears arguments on that potentially historic question, in connection with lawsuits filed by parents in Seattle and Louisville, Ky., who object to the practice.

The Bush administration has taken the side of the parents who are suing the school districts, much as it intervened on behalf of college and graduate students who challenged affirmative action policies before the Supreme Court in 2003.

CBS News correspondent Michelle Miller went to Manchester, Ct., to report on the debate over "racial imbalance."

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It may not look like it but schools in Manchester, Connecticut, are becoming racially segregated, and it's superintendent Kathleen Ouellette's problem to solve, reports CBS News correspondent Michelle Miller.

"Historically, this has been an issue for Manchester for many years," Ouellette tells Miller.

Eight of Manchester's 10 elementary schools are nearing what is being called "racial imbalance," where concentrations of minority students are either too high (above 73 percent) or too low (below 23 percent).

Gary Orfield, director of Harvard's Civil Rights Project, labels it "re-segregation" and says it's a nationwide trend.

"Schools in every part of the country, have become more segregated for black and Latino students, and we are now back to a level of segregation that hasn't existed for about a third of a century," says Orfield.

To solve its issues, Manchester is currently looking at three possible options: re-drawing districts to include more racial diversity, pairing majority white schools with majority black and Latino ones, and trading students or creating a complex school choice program.

"While Manchester's fix may imply race, in other parts of the country, race is an explicit admissions criterion," says Ouellette. "That has led to a number of legal challenges that face the Supreme Court, and some civil rights groups charge that's a direct threat to school integration."

At issue in the cases now before the Supreme Court is the question of whether or not race-based preferences in K through 12 school admissions are constitutional. The justices haven't explored this issue so broadly since 1954's landmark Brown vs Board of Education decision, which made school segregation unconstitutional.

"We need to get school officials out of the business of racial engineering and into the business of providing a quality education for all students, regardless of race and circumstance," says Terrence Pell, president of the Center for Individual Rights.

Nearly a dozen school districts nationwide are avoiding the fight altogether and are attempting to diversify classrooms by income.

Manchester hasn't explored that option yet, but may have to, depending on the Supreme Court's decision. Either way, Ouellette believes diversity is more than a legal mandate.

"It's our obligation that we provide our students with opportunities to share experiences with all cultures and all ways of life," says Ouellette.

A lesson and a challenge, in a country growing more diverse by the day.

Posted by OlGreyGhost at 01:03 PM :
Hey, if desegregation is such an important goal requiring government interference, let's kidnap all children from their parents and put them with other families of different races. "People will resist that with violence!" Right.

I used to live in a small town in northern Michigan where there no blacks or any other race for that matter, should we bus them to Chicago 400 miles away so they can be with some blacks? Most people that live there have never seen a black person other than in news or TV show


It really is a great place to live though

[subvet704]

This is a powerful issue. School should be about learning not quotas. Quotas have been found to be illegal. Why are we busing children all over districts just so that we can have the "correct" balance of racial integration.

Here in Lawrence KS we have been fighting this very issue for well over 10 years. It has been so bold that the district actually admits that racial segration in a primary reason.

Why don't we improve our education system instead? If we put as much money, time and effort in actually teaching as we do bussing we could accomplish a lot more.

[agnim]

"Choosing school assignments based off of race is not the right solution. The underlying problem here is equality in the quality of education for all students.
Posted by Keishia81 at 11:39 AM : Dec 04, 2006"

You are kinda late; since American history clearly shows that schools have ALWAYS been assigned based on race and racism.

Even if could have the fantasy of so-called 'equality in education', we would STILL need for Americans to be educated with and about each other to block ignorance and suspicions and avoidable national divisions.

This education of ALL Americans with and about each other is best achieved in a school setting; and this before the children learn deep-seated biases at home that will in time tear the nation apart.

[kailumego1]

The problem with promoting %u201Ceducational equality%u201D is much more complex than many of you realize, of which %u201Cinstitutionalized racism%u201D has been the cornerstone and prominent feature in American culture. This is our %u201Cstumbling block%u201D, %u201Cdefacto segregation%u201D, as demonstrated in our public school system, colleges and major universities. For a long time now, what has been taught is a %u201Cwishy-washy homogenous curriculum%u201D that has espoused Western European ideology devoid of elaborating on Native American, African, Asian, history, etc. As a matter of fact, for a long time, the only historical reference of Native Americans was being depicted as wanton bloodthirsty savages and white settlers as helpless victims, and this jaded imagine has continued until recently when textbooks were re-written to give a more accurate account of this period. However, a lot of pivotal information about their culture, posthumous leaders, and mistreatment by Europeans has still been omitted and traded for %u201Cwaxy%u201D stories romanticizing relationships between Native Americans and white settlers.

As for Africans, their image has been far worst, which Western Europeans have depicted them as licentious, indolent, feebleminded imbeciles, and although it was African slave labor responsible for metallurgy, crop rotation [cotton], building and construction, etc., the textbooks have not been a reflection.

[kailumego1]

It took me to research material online to find out that African Americans have contributed enormously to American society, in the way of inventions, in medical technology, commercial goods, etc., as a matter of fact, they have patented thousands of inventions. In addition, it was an excellent professor who enlightened me that the Chinese had also contributed to American society, by building railroads, as well as Hispanics [Cesar Chavez and the California Grape Workers boycott].

Our public school system needs to offer a %u201Cmulticultural%u201D curriculum espousing cultural diversity, teaching all American children the positive contributions and achievements made by all ethnicities, as oppose to only showcasing Western European achievements. A year ago I had a history class on Chinese civilization, and it was fascinating, I didn%u2019t realize at one time they were far more advance than Western Europeans.

Unfortunately, our public school curriculum is based on %u201Cethnocentristic%u201D and primarily focuses on the achievements of Western Europeans, when other civilizations have contributed just as much or even more. Maybe if there wasn%u2019t a %u201Cracial imbalance%u201D of material afforded to minority students, and they were taught about contributions made by other cultures, or ethnicities, then they wouldn%u2019t have such a negative view of themselves and others.

[olgreyghost]

Here's the best idea. Abolish the public school system. No more arguments over racial imbalance or other frivolous programs and how to pay for them. This puts the responsibility and control of a child's education back where it belongs - in the hands of the parents. "It takes a village..." is pile of socialistic manure used to justify stealing from taxpayers to pay for the indocrination of their children and the children of parasites that live in the same neighborhood.

"But nobody can afford an education like the rich!" Right, like no one could develop the Wal-Mart equivalent in the primary education industry that can deliver a better product at a lower price ("Always") than the government imposed monopoly does now?

"But what about the truly poor?" Right, no one could develop the Salvation Army or MDA version of the secondary school system, could they? Ever heard of charity? Scholarships?

"But White children will go to school with only White children!" Right, White parents are too stupid to realize we live in a multi-racial world and will intentionally deny their children access to dealing with diverse peoples.

Hey, if desegregation is such an important goal requiring government interference, let's kidnap all children from their parents and put them with other families of different races. "People will resist that with violence!" Right.

[redgrandboy]

Why are all the pro-basketball players black? Why are all the countries that everyone is dying to get into built and run by whites?

[keishia81]

This is indicative of a larger problem. Obviously there are major economic inequalities that result in this sort of problem. Choosing school assignments based off of race is not the right solution. The underlying problem here is equality in the quality of education for all students. Since the amount of money each school is allotted is based off of property taxes. Children who come from families with lower incomes aren't receiving the same education as their wealthier counter part. The solution is equal funding for all schools so that all students can receive an adequate education. I think that is the root of the problem that needs to be addressed.

[vancouverboo]

The Rich People never have to worry about these things. They send their children to private schools where there are no disorderly masses who only attend school to play basketball. As to the rest, if you can't home educate your children then that's just too bad for you.

[agnim]

These people who are bringing these frivolous law suits are ignorant, narrow of vision and mean spirited.
They mean the future of their children and nation no good.

That is why they whine too much: These ignorant and loony litigants lack vision, and the focus on education that they should be communicating to their unfortunate offspring.

And sadly, these puerile parents are out to pass on their lack of educational focus onto their children.

Communities that grow apart within the same country feed suspicions and negativity against each other.
Just ask the Jews of their generations of experiences in Egypt and in Europe.

[agnim]

The Jews have had tens of generations of human history to teach the rest of humans a thing or two about the HUGE DOWNSIDE in being a nation within a nation.

The Egyptians got suspicious of the Jews who lived a part in Egypt; and the Egyptians made them pay.

In Europe the Jews 'lived' apart, and again the Europeans make the Jews pay big time.
The Jews reveling in their own imported culture (or forced to revel in their own culture because of discrimination) aroused the kinds of suspicions from the majority population that spelled their doom.

By integrating American schools the children of America will be getting a good education about each other, and the realization that there is really nothing to fear or hate.
The American children will come to learn that fear and hate will only lead to misery and in the end, tear the nation apart.

Traveling a small distance to get an education that will serve them immensely in the future is GOOD FOR THE CHILDREN.
The narrow-minded parents may be too far gone to be saved in this lifetime, but the children of America can learn now to save themselves from the ignorance, narrow-mindedness and hate of their dumb and visionless parents who have no real desire for a better future for their children.

If the court was comprised of men of wisdom, they never would have even entertained this frivolous law suit.

[Rhoda Meier]

I teach math in a racially mixed public high school. To me, race is not nearly the issue that class is. I have black students who are from middle class backgrounds, and they generally do as well as their white counterparts. But I have students, black, white and latino, who come from poverty and the home upheaval that is so often a partner to poverty, and it's much, much harder to help those students to succeed. For most of them, the biggest burden is the attitude they get from their homes and neighborhoods, and it is almost impossible to overcome.

[agnim]

"We have foreign communities setup within our own cities hence, Chinatown, Little Mexico, etc, etc. these areas are setup and occupied by people who are obviously not interested in integration, or even speaking english to communicate with the rest of us.

Posted by tru_america1 at 08:54 AM : Dec 04, 2006"

Has it ever crossed your klan mind that one of the main reasons that these so-called 'foreign communities' get set up and perpetuated is out of their need for a sense of COMMUNITY, & PROTECTION FROM BIGOTS who don't care for them in their white communities?

Think about it.
The venom that you and your klan buddies relentlessly spew towards these people FORCE them to 'circle wagons' in more 'homely' communities.

[agnim]

"I%u2019d hate to sound ridiculous, but how about selecting students on merit?
Posted by Amazedd at 05:59 AM : Dec 04, 2006"

As we have been doing for generations now, right? LOL

Historical racist PREFERENCES AND PRIVILEGES are mainly responsible for many of the dangerous imbalances in society!

Little or NO 'merit' was ever involved in generations of racist institutionalize inequalities.

well said tru_america1, the same goes for our area

[antoniof123]

Why don't we fix the schools you know better pay for teachers. Better class rooms with better equiptment. Oh wait we are spending our kids futures in Iraq and there is no profit in teaching children.

[adian1-2009]

The country is racist, no doubts about it. The Civil Rights legislation signed by President Johnson in the Sixties has played a significant role in reducing the effects of discrimination, but legislation is not enough to change social attitudes and negative values. In this country of ours discrimination is the order of the day and to a certain level, almost all of us either discriminate based on the color of the skin or for quite a number of other motives. I say motives and not reasons, because the difference must be kept in mind. Whites and blacks discriminate against each other; both races discriminate against people of Latin origin; Asians are discriminated and at the same time, though in a more subtle way, they discriminate against all others and that is why they fence themselves around; and so on, and so on. One of the obstacles to true integration seems to be that while our Constitution applies to the whole nation, there is no full and complete national educational system. The proper education is a must to remedy the situation. But you will see Scalia and Thomas siding with the Government. And they have a point, though it will go inarticulated: they are strict constructionists, and our founding fathers did not have integration in mind when they drafted our Constitution. So, paradoxically enough, now it happens that our Constitution bars egalitarian intentions. And our federal government agrees with that!!!

[amazedd]

I%u2019d hate to sound ridiculous, but how about selecting students on merit?

most of schools here where I live have a pretty good balance of all races, except one that is right in the middle of town, its all black, not because of any segregation, but because that is where they choose to live, then they (the blacks)complain that it is segregated. And this issue has come up here on what to do about it, the drawing of new line etc...however most people said they would up and move out if their kids had to go to that high school that is now on a list of schools that might close because of low test scores and poor performance. I get so tired of these people that complain about where they live, if you don't like it move to a white neighborhood

[plsthink]

I am totally against segregations,and I surely hope that integration is working overall because it failed on me. When I arrived in the US over 35 yrs ago, I was bussed to a different part of the city's school nearly 10 miles when there was one only 3 blocks away from my home. On my first week of school as a 1st grader, my kindergarten brother and I were mugged by 2local kids. I had more fights with kids of different racial backgrounds than all my school life put together thereafter. It made me a bitter man, and I will never live in that city again. Fortunately, I'm in a financial status where I, as a father now, can afford to move to an award winning school district that comprised of different kids of race than I faced when I was 7yrs old. I wouldn't want my kids to experience prejudice and bigotry like I did. My biggest satisfaction is not revenge, but a chance to see that racial integretion is working well and to see all communities take pride and work towards an improvement.