Parents challenge race based student assignment plan in Lynn, Massachusetts
In the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court striking down the Seattle, Washington and the Jefferson County, Kentucky race conscious student assignment plans, a group of Lynn, Massachusetts parents have filed a motion in federal district court to reopen their case challenging Lynn’s race based student assignment plan. Under Lynn's current plan, students requesting to attend another school can be denied if the transfer would change the racial balance at the school. In 2005, the Supreme Court declined to review an U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit’s decision upholding Lynn's longstanding policy. The Supreme Court’s recent ruling in the Seattle and Jefferson County cases could affect approximately 20 school-assignment plans in Massachusetts, as well as the Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity (Metco), which has bused minority students to affluent suburban schools since 1966.
Those involved disagree about the outcome of the Lynn case in light of the recent Supreme Court ruling. Nadine Cohen, an attorney with the Lawyer's Committee for Civil Rights who intervened in the previous Lynn case, is confident the city's plan will still withstand constitutional scrutiny. "I think that it's a very narrowly tailored plan," she says. "Race is a problem, race has to be part of the solution, and if we're trying to remedy segregated schools, we need to be able to do that by taking race into account." According to Mr. Darling, the attorney who previously brought suit on behalf of the Lynn parents, Lynn’s plan is "racial balancing, pure and simple, and that has been held time and time again to be constitutionally inappropriate." Patricia M. Capano, a Lynn School Committee member, disagrees with Mr. Darling characterization of Lynn’s plan. She also notes that Lynn officials are seeking an opinion from Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley on the Supreme Court decision. "It's a balanced system right now," says Ms. Capano. "Our neighborhoods are sometimes very cultural- and very race-oriented. So, if you keep a very low-economic neighborhood going to the same school, then you get an unbalanced school -- and that's what we fear." The Lynn parents’ suit argues that if the district courts refuses to strike down the school district’s plan, their children will be "the only school children in America who lack the equal-protection rights established" in the recent Supreme Court decision.
Boston Globe
By April Yee
[Full story]
[Editor’s Note: The Supreme Court decision is summarized at the first link below, which also links to additional resources. Education Week reports at the second link that in light of the ruling, policymakers and the news media are taking a fresh look at whether diversity can be achieved by considering family income as an alternative to race. The article features a report from the Century Foundation, available at the third link, surveying the use of students’ socioeconomic status in pursuit of diverse and high-achieving school populations in a dozen school districts. The prime example cited in the report, released June 28, is North Carolina’s Wake County school district, which includes the city of Raleigh. The 128,000-student district specifies that no school may enroll more than 40% of its students from families with incomes low enough to qualify for the federal free or reduced-price lunch programs. The Boston Herald story at the last link details how the Supreme Court ruling may threaten not only Lynn’s student assignment plan, but also Metco’s voluntary desegregation program involving the busing of minority students from Boston to affluent suburban school districts.]
[NSBA School Law pages on PICS v. Seattle Sch. Dist. No. 1]
Education Week
By Andrew Trotter
[Full story]
[Century Foundation Socioeconomic School Integration survey]
[NSBA School Law pages on future of Lynn plan]