THE FUTURE OF SCHOOL INTEGRATION AND THE PROMISE OF EQUAL EDUCATION FOR ALL

Abstract

On June 28, 2007 the Supreme Court issued a sharply divided decision in Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1, and its companion case Meredith v. Jefferson County Board of Education, which invalidated race-conscious student assignment plans using the strict scrutiny framework under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The most important development in this case was Justice Kennedy's decision to decline to join certain portions of the majority opinion. This means that those portions do not carry a majority of the Court, and are not the law of the land; additionally, Kennedy provides a blueprint for communities looking for ways to combat separate and unequal education in their K-12 public schools.

Justice Kennedy recognized that school districts have a compelling interest in promoting diversity and avoiding racial isolation. Kennedy suggests several race-neutral alternatives that would likely pass constitutional muster in the future. One method, socioeconomic integration, seems to be the best way to close the achievement gap and promote greater racial understanding in public education. A host of school districts throughout the United States have integrated their public schools using the socioeconomic status of their students with great success. In addition to profiling two school districts that use this promising race-neutral alternative, I've examined the dramatic change in the Supreme Court's equal protection jurisprudence beginning with Plessy v. Ferguson, culminating in an analysis of the Parents and Meredith cases. Moreover, I've addressed the government's response to closing the achievement gap between minority students and their white classmates by exploring the success and failure of the No Child Left Behind Act, and how it can be reformed in order to be more effective.

While socioeconomic integration has been proven to work in some communities, it has failed to improve diversity and student achievement across the board. Ultimately, I've concluded that socioeconomic integration alone will not effectively close the achievement gap between minority students and their white counterparts, or successfully integrate public schools. Only a concerted effort by federal and local governments to improve early childhood education, coupled with more access to stable and affordable housing outside of urban centers, will provide the means to make education truly equal for all, while keeping Brown's promise alive for future generations.