Massachusetts school districts maintain desegregation plans
Nearly two-dozen Massachusetts school districts with desegregation plans similar to those struck down as unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court have made few if any changes to their policies as they enter the new school year. "We've cautioned them to go slowly," state Education Commissioner David Driscoll says of his department's instructions to districts. "We've given them advice that they don't need to be stampeded into something." The Supreme Court, by a 5-4 vote June 28, ruled that Louisville, Ky., and Seattle could not use students' race as a factor in deciding which schools they attend. But the ruling was not a complete repudiation of using race in making school assignments; the Court left the door open in limited circumstances. "Until I hear definitively that there's a clear and compelling reason we should do something differently, we're not going to," says Joseph Burke, superintendent in Springfield, which, unlike the other communities, remains under a state supreme court order to desegregate. Mr. Burke has asked city and state lawyers for guidance on whether the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in effect vacates the order from the state's high court. Lowell Superintendent Karla Brooks Baehr says if there are any changes, they will not be immediate.
After the U.S. Supreme Court ruling, an attorney for parents in Lynn returned to federal court seeking to have the city's 18-year-old system thrown out. The policy allows race to be considered when children request transfers to schools outside their neighborhoods. A U.S. appeals court had earlier upheld the policy as constitutional. Supporters of these race-based plans say districts, like Lynn, would become segregated if the plans are tossed out. Attorney Chester Darling, who represents the Lynn parents, predicts that districts won't make changes unless forced. "We're going to have to litigate, and that's ridiculous," he says. "A wall of resistance, that's what I see. They've got to change the plans. They're patently unconstitutional." Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley defended Lynn's policy, arguing in court papers that the system is a success and is not used to determine the student's initial assignment. Several districts have amended their plans in recent years. Cambridge now uses socio-economic status as the primary factor in student assignments. Boston, which had been under federal court order to desegregate, stopped using race as a factor seven years ago. Lawrence stopped using race as a factor five years ago because the city is primarily Hispanic, says Superintendent Wilfredo Laboy. Some districts say the Supreme Court ruling is irrelevant because they no longer apply their desegregation policies.
Meanwhile, there may be a new legal challenge out of Milton, which does not have a state-approved racial integration plan. The father of a first-grader is contesting the town's reassignment plan, claiming race may have been a factor in redrawing geographic lines to get more white children into one of the elementary schools. Beirne Lovely, chairman of the Milton School Committee, insists the goal of the new assignment map is to make sure class sizes are equal across the district. "We were particularly careful in not using race as a factor," he says. "We were aware of the pending decision in the Louisville and Seattle cases. I'm very comfortable that if it were challenged, it will be sustained."
Boston Globe By Ken Maguire (Associated Press)
[Editor’s Note: More information on the Lynn case and the Supreme Court decisions is available starting below. Justice Anthony Kennedy, whose concurring opinion in the Supreme Court case constituted the crucial fifth vote in the outcome, expressly concluded that school boards remain free to use means such as site selection of schools and attendance zones, which are race conscious but do not lead to different treatment on an individual basis. Both NSBA’s Office of General Counsel and its Council of Urban Boards of Education soon will issue guidance on the implications of the Court’s decisions.]
NSBA School Law pages on Lynn case