June 28, 2007
STOP PLANNING AND USE THE MARKET:
U.S. Supreme Court votes to curb school districts' diversity plans (David Stout, June 28, 2007, NY Times)
The court voted, 5 to 4, to reject diversity plans from Seattle and Louisville, Kentucky, declaring that the districts had failed to meet "their heavy burden" of justifying "the extreme means they have chosen - discriminating among individual students based on race by relying upon racial classifications in making school assignments."The decision Thursday, one of the most important in years on the issue of race and education, may not eliminate race as a factor in assigning students to different schools. But it will surely prompt many districts to revise programs they already have in place, or go back to the drawing boards in designing plans.
The majority's rationale relied in part on the historic 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education that outlawed segregation in public schools - a factor that the dissenters on the court found to be a cruel irony, and which they objected to in emotional terms.
Give the kids vouchers and let them choose their own schools. Posted by Orrin Judd at June 28, 2007 3:30 PM
Great quote from Stevens:
It is my firm conviction that no member of the court that I joined in 1975 would have agreed with today's decision," he wrote.
At least at the Supreme Court, things appear to be getting much better.
Posted by: Jorge Curioso at June 28, 2007 3:59 PMIf we like what's happening we should get serious and start thinking like a voter coalition again.
We must turn away from ideological fanatricism--leave that to the left, it is their way, not ours. Respect our coalition-mates; defer to them in their areas of greatest concern. One values live babies, another final victory in the unfinished war with the jailhouse, another his guns, another low taxes, another a quota-free society, another secure bordrs and ratonal immigration.
Gung-ho--pull together, take it back. Ponder now, which part our our movement would you have jettisoned to forego the victory on every front we are getting from the Supreme Court?
Be sure these victories are mobilizing the other side. They will now fight desperately, like a wounded beast. Let's get on the move: don't leave everything to the NRA.
Let the debate on a color-blind society be joined. The above case is a starting point.
Posted by: Lou Gots at June 29, 2007 4:11 AMThe notion of a viable long-term coalition between the Darwinist Right and the religious is untenable. Over the next few decades those who care most about "individual freedom" will gravitate towards the Left--which is permissive and isolationist--while the socially conservative peoples of color will move Right. The natural dividing line in modern politics is morality, not identity.