The School Plans at Issue

By Lyle Denniston
on Jun 28, 2007 at 10:20 am

The Supreme Court on Monday nullified both of the voluntary school integration plans at issue in two cases, decided jointly. Here are summaries of each plan:

Seattle, Wash.
Parents Involved v. Seattle School District (05-908)

District: Seattle School District No. 1.
Racial history of schools: Public schools never officially segregated by race. First major city in U.S. to adopt (in 1977) voluntary plan to desegregate schools; racial isolation caused by neighborhood housing patterns. Today, majority of white students still live in neighborhoods north of downtown, majority of non-whites students live south of downtown.
Scope of plan at issue in this case: Applies only to city’s ten four-year high schools, serving 14,400 students. High schools are 60 percent non-white, 40 percent white.
Basic student assignment goal: “Open choice,” to allow each student entering ninth grade to choose any of ten high schools.
Racial goal: Avoid racial concentration in any one school, achieve educational and social benefits from cross-racial and cross-cultural learning. Aims to get as close as possible in each school to citywide 60-40, non-white to white ratio. Any school considered racially imbalanced if racial makeup of students is 15 percent off the 60-40 goal either way..
How plan works: Each student initially offered a choice of high school. Plan takes effect at any one school only if too many students of one race choose a school, pushing it off the allowed variations from the 60-40 goal. When that happens, students permitted at that school are chosen by four methods – called “tiebreakers.” Race is the second one.
The tiebreakers: First choice at a school where plan is in effect goes to students who have a brother or sister already there. Second choice is based on each applying student’s race, whether white or non-white. Students whose race would tip that school beyond the 15 percent variation from 60-40 are denied entry to that school. The race tiebreaker does not apply to transfers. Third choice goes to students living closest to a school. Fourth choice is a lottery among remaining applicants; lottery is almost never used because the first three tiebreakers normally fill the ninth grade at a school (the distance tiebreaker accounts for upwards of 70 percent of admissions to ninth grade.) A student’s second or third choice of school may also be affected by the tiebreakers.
Impact: In a recent year, 210 white students were denied their first choice and 90 non-whites were denied their first choice.
Lower court result: Upheld by Ninth Circuit Court, en banc, October 2005.

Louisville, Ky
Meredith v. Jefferson County Board of Education (05-915).

District: Jefferson County Public School District, with boundaries the same as metropolitan Louisville.
Racial history of schools: Public schools were officially segregated by race, before a federal court ordered desegregation in 1975. Court order remained in place until 2000. County school system in 2001 then adopted voluntary plan on student assignment.
Scope of plan at issue in this case: Applies to the District’s 159 schools at elementary, middle and high school levels, serving 89,000 students. Student population District-wide is 66 percent white, 34 percent black. (White category includes races other than black or white.)
Basic student assignment goal: Give each student maximum choice of school, but within a system of “managed choice.” Students may choose geographic location of a school and have choices of magnet schools and other specialized programs. Each student is assigned a school by residential area, but that is not controlling; more than half go elsewhere. Magnet schools have no attendance area, for example.
Racial goal: Maintain a “racially integrated environment” throughout the District to teach students racial tolerance and understanding.. Each school is to seek a black student enrollment of at least 15 percent and no more than 50 percent – that is, about 15 percent below or above the District-wide black student population of 34 percent. (That goal does not apply to four magnet schools, or to pre-schools or kindergartens.)
How plan works: Students at each level may apply to attend a school outside their residential area. School principals make assignment decisions. Multiple factors other than race are considered (such as available space). Assignment decisions have some flexibility, but the guideline is not to allow a given school to vary from the 15 percent variable from 34 percent black.
Impact: In practice, only about 30 percent of all schools come within 5 percentage points, plus or minus, of the 15 to 50 percent guideline. The exact number of students turned away from a choice school because of race is not known because of other factors. The District says that the racial guideline has a small effect at middle and high schools because racial integration is achieved by attendance area assignment, and a minimal effect in elementary schools because integration is achieved by offering students a choice of five to 10 equal schools and granting nearly all at least one such choice.
Lower court result: Upheld by Sixth Circuit Court, per curiam, July 2005.