WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court said Monday that it will decide how public schools can use race in making school assignments, setting the stage for a landmark affirmative-action ruling.
Justices will hear appeals from a Seattle parents group and a Kentucky parent, ruling for the first time on diversity plans which are used by districts around the country.
Race cases have been difficult for the justices. The court's announcement that it will take up the cases this fall provides the first sign of an aggressiveness by the court under new Chief Justice John Roberts.
The court rejected a similar case in December when moderate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor was still on the bench. The outcome of this case will turn on her successor, Samuel Alito.
In one of the cases, an appeals court had upheld Seattle's system, which lets students pick among high schools and then relies on tiebreakers, including race, to decide who gets into schools that have more applicants than openings. The lower court decision was based in part on a Supreme Court ruling three years ago, written by Justice O'Connor, which said that colleges and universities could select students based at least in part on race.
This seems like a needlessly top-heavy solution to school equality issues.
First off, I cannot fathom why race should ever be considered when making education choices for children. Decisions made based on race are racist, regardless of whether those decisions offer the short end the stick to whites more minorities. It is no less racist to tell a white child that he can't attend a school because of the color of his skin that it is to tell a black child the same.
Second, why not just take the decision away from school bureaucrats altogether and give it to the parents? School voucher systems would do just that. Parents could use their child's share of education tax dollars to pick whatever school they feel is best. Of course, schools that have too many applicants may need to pick and choose as to who gets in, but situations like that could be solved by having parents pick a couple of "second choice" schools and then factoring in other situations like how close the students live to each school, etc.
A voucher system similar to this was implemented in Florida to fantastic results (increased test scores across the board but especially for minority kids) until it was sued out of existence by, ironically, the NAACP, PTA and teacher's unions.
The bottom line, though, is this: We need a system that leaves race out of the mix and puts the parents in charge, as much as possible, of their own children's education.