Economic Integration in Dallas

Even as the white supremacists who now occupy Washington try to turn back the clock to the Jim Crow Era, new efforts to integrate schools are underway in Dallas:

Rather than admit students by grades, test scores or auditions, which tends to turn schools into enclaves of affluence, these schools admit them by lottery, with no admissions standards. They are organized around popular themes like single-sex education, science, the arts, bilingual classes and professional internships.

Most strikingly for a district where 90 percent of students are low-income, the district is setting aside seats in several of the new schools for students who do not qualify for free or reduced-price lunches, even if they live in suburbs outside the district. Those coming from other districts do not have to pay tuition, and though Dallas will not receive school property taxes from their families, it will get funding from the state for each traveling student.

By relying on income instead of race, Dallas is following guidelines from the Supreme Court, which in 2007 declared it unconstitutional to consider race as a factor when assigning students to schools.

“The federal government, both the executive branch and the legislative branch, have virtually abandoned school integration”

 While the Oligarchs' point system for Race to the Top applications included bribery for states adopting data surveillance, pay for test scores, teacher evaluation plans based on tests, and segregative charter schools, there were no incentives or bonus points for ending, or even challenging, the resegregation of American schools, which began in earnest during the Reagan era.

From this illuminating piece of journalism in Miller-McCune, we are reminded again of the quickly-cementing image of an Administration emasculated by its fear and cowardice to address the social and economic issues that must be put on the table if the Republic is to survive.  If it is not fear and cowardice, then it is complicity, which recommends Obama-Duncan to even a hotter circle of Hell:

. . . . School districts have been moving away from integrated classrooms that could yield these benefits for several reasons, Siegel-Hawley says. A series of Supreme Court decisions since the 1990s, culminating with a key 2007 ruling, have disarmed integration initatives and left districts confused about their remaining options. The basic residential segregation that feeds segregated schools (and, more broadly, segregated school districts) persists. And the rise of school choice also contributes (a challenge Siegel-Hawley’s colleague recently discussed with Miller-McCune.com).

John Brittain, a law professor at the University of the District of Columbia and the former chief counsel of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, cites one other factor.

“The federal government, both the executive branch and the legislative branch, have virtually abandoned school integration,” he said.

He’s one of many advocates who have been disappointed by the Obama administration’s slow response to the topic. Civil rights leaders have been waiting for guidance from the Department of Education interpreting the 2007 Supreme Court ruling, Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1. The department is still posting on its website an old Bush-era memo that Brittain says ignores integration guidance proposed by the case’s deciding vote, Justice Anthony Kennedy.

“It left schools thinking that in the worst sense,” Brittain said, “school integration had pretty much come to an end unless it was a court-ordered school case.”

Parents Involved limited districts’ ability to consider the individual race of a student when making school assignment decisions. But Kennedy outlined another path — through strategic site selection, districts could build new schools or draw attendance zones with the demographics of a neighborhood in mind.

“These are mechanisms that are race-conscious because they’re taking race into account,” Brittain said. “But they do not lead to different treatment of students based upon a classification that tells each student he or she is to be defined by race in terms of where they go to school.”

The Obama administration has suggested to civil rights leaders that the new guidance is on the way.
“But it’s still taken them too long, even if they’ve got a plan,” Brittain said. “It shouldn’t take 22 months, going on two years, to do this.”

Other integration advocates have urged officials to publicly make the case that desegregation still matters — especially in an age when the nation’s broader demographics (and future work force) are shifting so rapidly.

“They’re trying so hard to get it so right,” Brittain said of the current administration, “that they end up doing so little, and it takes them so long.”

Watch John Tedesco Demonstrate How Racism Can Destroy Brain Cells

And you will love the mom who argues that integrating poor and rich children in school is discriminatory. From My NC.com:

Raleigh's Resegregationist School Board Majority Votes to End Economic Diversity Plan in Wake County

Richard Nixon got elected in 1968 by turning the Party of Lincoln into the Party of Apartheid, i. e., by embracing the social policies demanded by a segregationist South that was ready to even change political parties to protect the only social policy that mattered: separation of the races.

In a book that should be required reading in any educational history or policy course on American education, Gerald Grant recounts how Nixon and his White House thugs, Haldeman and Mitchell, instituted a segregationist and anti-busing litmus test for any judge to be considered for appointment to the Federal bench, including the Supreme Court.

This litmus test would be applied, of course, before any potential judge ever went before the lights of a Senate confirmation hearing. To get to the hearing, in fact, potential judges had to be on the side of school segregation and housing segregation. And if not for the White House taping system, we would never have the documentation to prove Nixon's active complicity to kill busing and to re-institute his version of Jim Crow America.

From Grant's book:

Nixon was making sure the he would not have to ask any nominee about his stand on busing, while directing Mitchell and key aides to apply that test to any potential appointment they brought to the president's desk. Because of the possible retirement of a second justice, Mitchell suggested to Nixon that he might make a "double play."

Nixon: Well, even then I don't want a liberal.
Mitchell: Oh no, no.
Nixon: I don't want a liberal.
Mitchell: Absolutely not.
Nixon: I jus feel so strongly about that, I mean, when I think what the busing decisions have done to the South, and what it could do with de facto busing [in the North].
Mitchell: I agree.

Before Mitchell left, Nixon underlined his instructions once again: "I want you to have a specific talk with whatever man you consider. And I have to have an absolute commitment from him on busing and integration. I really have to. Go out and tell 'em that we totally respect his right to do otherwise, but if he believes otherwise, I don't want to appoint him to the Court."

Nixon got the Court he wanted. The four justices he appointed--replacing liberal judges of the Warren Court, including Chief Justice Earl Warren himself, along with Abe Fortas, Hugo Black, and John Marshall Harlan--radically changed the direction of the U. S. Supreme Court and provided the majority to stop desegregation at the city line in the North. The Warren Court had ordered desegregation of city and suburbs in Charlotte in 1968, but Nixon's Court refused to do so in 1974 in Detroit (pp. 151-152).

The decision to strike down Detroit's desegregation plan, and thus seal the fate of desegregation efforts nationwide, was a 5-4 vote based on that new Nixon resegregationist Supreme Court majority.

Now almost 40 years later, it is another 5-4 vote by yet another purchased and screened majority (this time in Wake County, NC) that would seem to seal the fate of the most successful school diversity plan in the history of American public education. Where is Secretary Duncan on this, who has nothing but bad things to say about school boards that want to protect students and teachers? Any Duncan or Obama criticism of school boards out to protect racists?

The story here by the Charlotte Observer and below by the Raleigh Public Record:

By Will Huntsberry • Mar 3rd, 2010

Yesterday Wake County’s school board met amidst a packed house of supporters for Wake’s diversity policy and supporters for the new school board majority. The school board’s agenda for Tuesday received national coverage from the Associated Press and The New York Times because of the board majority’s intent to enact a resolution to end Wake’s diversity policy. The measure passed in a 5-4 vote.

Though, the new majority was elected by a vocal, well-funded faction of Wake County parents, supporters of the diversity policy toted the biggest signs at yesterday’s meeting. And they represented a majority of the voices during what’s become almost the standard 2-hour public comment period.

Photo by Will Huntsberry.

The board agenda listed the fiscal implications of the new neighborhood schools policy “to be determined.” Board member Keith Sutton requested that the vote on community schools be deemed “out of order” at this time on the grounds that its fiscal implications have yet to be presented. Another board member, Kevin Hill, asked for a “work session” on the matter before the vote.

36 of the 55 speakers spoke out in support of the Wake County diversity policy at yesterday’s meeting and one of those speakers was on the verge of being forced out by police.

Police almost ejected Curtis Gatewood of Granville County, right, from the meeting. Rev. William Barber of the North Carolina NAACP, center, intervened. Photo by Will Huntsberry.

Several other parents asked how equity could be achieved by uprooting current policy in a recession. Creating a majority of high poverty schools within the Beltline, as many think the neighborhood policy would achieve, would require additional funding to provide equal education in those areas.

This has lead many to deem the new policy “re-segregation” or a return to “separate but equal.”

Yesterday’s meeting reported a negative increase in county appropriations per student. The number went down this school year by $37 per student and in 2010-11 will go down another $63 per student.

The public comment session was cut short to proceed with the agenda, but not before one commenter was allowed to cede her two minutes at the podium to North Carolina NAACP President William Barber.

Barber spoke of “data and morality not supporting” the new school board majority’s direction and then asked the crowd to join “an old country preacher” in singing the hymn, “We Shall Overcome.” While the crowd sang, Barber resumed making his comments to the school board, asking why it wouldn’t allow the NAACP, “an expert on high poverty schools, 45 minutes to give a presentation to the board?” He answered, “it’s because you know you’re wrong.”

Before Dr. Barber stepped down over three-quarters of the room was standing after he asked for those in favor of Wake’s diversity policy to rise.

As a mix of snow, rain, and ice fell outside Wake County schools four-story building, the school board minority, lead by Carolyn Morrison, desperately sought for half an hour more time before a vote should take place. Finally, a last-ditch attempt to recess was voted down 5-4, as the audience nervously chuckled.

After the monumental vote took place, a large crowd gathered in the center of the room at the the urging of Rev. Barber. He lead the congested and tearful mass in chanting, “We’re not going anywhere! We’re not going anywhere!”

The New Resegregationist School Board Members of Wake County, NC

With the help in 2009 of the Republican Tea Party strategist, Art Pope, re-segregationists elected in November four school board members in Wake County to vote along with veteran diversity antagonist, Ron Margiotta, who is now Chairman of the Wake County School Board. With five votes on the 9-member panel now in the hands of five Republican segregationists, one of the nation's most successful school integration and diversity programs is scheduled for the chopping block unless parents, students, and teachers rally to save diversity in Wake County, NC. From the Raleigh News-Observer:

RALEIGH This fall could mark the final year of Wake County's school diversity policy as the new ruling coalition on the school board develops a plan that overhauls where and how children are educated.

Next week, Wake families will start applying for seats at magnet schools this fall. But the magnet program is among the things that could be overhauled as part of a new student assignment plan school board members say they want to start implementing in the 2011-12 school year.

Members of the board majority say they plan to spend much of the next year developing details of a new plan that would carry out their campaign promises of eliminating the diversity policy, moving Wake toward neighborhood schools and revamping the magnet program.

"We're going to turn around the Titanic that is the Wake County school system," said school board member John Tedesco, who is chairman of the board's newly created student assignment committee.

Tedesco is laying out a vision in which Wake would be divided into up to 20 community-based assignment zones, each with a mixture of magnet, year-round and traditional-calendar schools. He proposes spreading magnet schools around the county - removing programs from some of the 33 existing magnet schools, most of which are clustered inside the Beltline around Raleigh.

His plan would lead to the creation of high-poverty schools in some areas, which he said could be addressed by giving such schools additional money. But the main challenge to implementing the plan may come from members of the board majority.

Tedesco's plan confirms the fears of magnet parents who've been the most vocal critics of the new school board majority. They've argued that abandoning the diversity policy and significantly altering the magnet program would lead to de facto resegregation.

"They're going to get away with saying there's still magnet programs," said Lisa Callan, a parent at Combs Elementary, a magnet school in Raleigh. "But it won't be the same. It's going to be awatered-down version."

Magnet schools are part of a carrot-and-stick approach for maintaining diversity.

While some students are involuntarily bused for diversity, others are encouraged to attend magnet schools voluntarily. Unique academic programs have been used since 1982 to entice suburban students to apply for magnet schools that are mostly located in higher-poverty areas in and near Southeast Raleigh. . . .

So that interested citizens may not be embarrassed by mistaking these folks for supporters of integration and diversity, here are the five Republicans Wake County Board members with their email addresses. Please be respectful with your letters, and keep in mind that segregationists have feelings, too--I guess.

District 8 (Southern Wake)

Mr. Ron Margiotta, Chair
7800 Secluded Acres Road
Apex, North Carolina 27523
850-8872/office
290-2043/residence, fax
Term Expires: November 2011
E-mail Mr. Ron Margiotta (rmargiotta@wcpss.net)

A longtime businessman, Ron Margiotta (R) retired in 2000 with 40 years of experience in business. Mr. Margiotta is the founding owner and operator of Reliable Service Company, a warehouse and installation service business. Originally from New Jersey, Mr. Margiotta studied labor relations at St. Peter's College. He has served on the executive committee of the Wake County Taxpayer's Association. Prior to moving to Wake County, Mr. Margiotta was elected to a school board in the Northeast where he also served as board president for six years.

District 1 (Northeast Wake)
Mr. Chris Malone
224 W. Holding Ave.
Wake Forest, North Carolina 27587
850-8865/office
562-6165/fax
Term Expires: November 2013
E-mail Mr. Chris Malone (cmalone2@wcpss.net)

PARTY: Republican

OCCUPATION: Case manager at G4S Compliance and Investigations

EXPERIENCE: Wake Forest town commissioner 2001-2005; past member of Wake Forest Planning Board and Wake Forest Board of Adjustments; unsuccessfully ran for Wake County Board of Commissioners in 2004

ENDORSEMENTS: Wake Schools Community Alliance, Take Wake Schools Back, Children's PAC, Wake County Republican Party

FAMILY: Wife, Becky; two sons, Christopher, 16, and Benjamin, 14; daughter, Katie, 12

DATE OF BIRTH: June 10, 1957

BIRTHPLACE: Hanover, Germany

ADDRESS: 224 West Holding Ave., Wake Forest

John Tedesco Party: Republican Vice President of Development JTedesco@bbbstriangle.org Spokesperson for segregationist majority

District 7 (West Raleigh/Morrisville)
Ms. Deborah Prickett
11305 Ridgegate Dr.
Raleigh, North Carolina 27617
850-8871/office
544-6718/fax
Term Expires: November 2013
E-mail Ms. Deborah Prickett (dprickett@wcpss.net)

Mrs. Prickett (R) is presently an Education Consultant with the NC Department of Public Instruction. As a WCPSS employee for over 20 years, she served as a Counselor Mentor and Lead Counselor at Leesville MS, counselor at Southeast Raleigh HS, and Apex ES. In addition, she was a Department Chairperson and Team Leader while teaching English, Language Arts, and Social Studies. She has a Master of Arts Degree from North Carolina Central University and a Bachelor of Arts Degree from North Carolina State University. Mrs. Prickett, a Raleigh native, is married with a son who attends school in WCPSS.

District 9 (Western Wake)
Ms. Debra Goldman, Vice Chair
505 Nantucket Drive
Cary, North Carolina 27513
850-8873/office
380-5930/fax
Term Expires: November 2013
E-mail Ms. Debra Goldman (dgoldman@wcpss.net)

Ms. Goldman (R), who has a son who attends a magnet school, could be an important swing vote in the upcoming war on diversity in Wake. Nothing like self-interest to motivate a conservative:

But Tedesco could have a hard time persuading fellow new board member Debra Goldman to back his plan. Goldman, the parent of a magnet student, has shown the willingness to break from the majority on votes.

Goldman said she supports the vision of community-based schools and is interested in some magnet changes, such as adding a few new magnet schools in other areas. But she's not for making major changes to the magnet program. She's also against changing the magnet selection criteria for this fall, which Tedesco advocates.

"I want to protect the magnet system," Goldman said.

Merry Learning to All, Together, Really

Day before yesterday, North Carolina's governor threw her unequivocal support behind the diversity policies in her state that have brought about improved learning for all and increases in student achievement scores:

Raleigh, N.C. — As Wake County and other school districts across North Carolina shift away from busing students to achieve socio-economic diversity, Gov. Beverly Perdue and other officials fear the districts will become racially segregated.

"It's the most troublesome thing I think that's happened," Perdue said of the push toward neighborhood schools from Goldsboro to Charlotte.

. . . .

Perdue said neighborhood schools that are almost all-black or all-white won't provide all students with a quality education, saying schools in low-income areas will be at a significant disadvantage.

"Whether it's racially done or economically done, there has to be some kind of momentum to continue to have diversity in our schools," she said. . . .

Wake County Board Chair Chooses Jesse Helms Loyalist as Board Lawyer

(Photo by Ted Richardson of NewsObserver.com) With the new segregationists now holding a 5-4 majority on the Wake County School Board, Wake's long-standing and exemplary economic integration policy could be on the chopping block at tonight's Board meeting. Offering legal advice to the new majority will be GOP insider, Thomas Farr, who learned about civil rights at the knee of world-famous segregationist, Senator Jesse Helms. From NewsObserver.com:

RALEIGH The Wake County school board's choice of a prominent Republican lawyer to take a hard look at the school system's legal contracts and fees has ignited a wrangle about whether the move amounts to overt partisanship or just sound government practice.

The selection of Raleigh attorney Thomas Farr, a former nominee for a federal judgeship with strong GOP ties dating to the Jesse Helms organization, is just one matter of dispute between the board's ruling coalition and members who previously held sway. The new five-member majority, which received strong backing from the county Republican Party, favors killing the current policy of mandated socio-economic diversity in each school, as well as mandated year-round schools.

Board member Kevin Hill, ousted as chairman during a tumultuous Dec. 1 meeting, said naming Farr signals an excessive role for partisan politics on the officially nonpartisan school board. In addition, Hill said, the board should not have named Farr to the job without establishing his fee for the work.

"I do believe it doesn't look good for the board," Hill said. "He is closely identified with the Republican Party at the state level. His law firm has a minimum amount of experience with school law."

Board Chairman Ron Margiotta said Friday that he has not started negotiating money with Farr. The measure is up for renewed discussion at Tuesday's board meeting, which will also likely include a showdown between advocacy groups. State members of Americans for Prosperity say they'll rally support for the new board majority, while BiggerPicture4Wake and at least one other group have promised to show up in support of the existing diversity policy. . . .

And today the News & Observer published another story detailing Farr's involvement in a black voter intimidation scheme in 1990:

. . . .A 1992 U.S. Justice Department complaint said the Helms campaign sent postcards designed to intimidate tens of thousands of registered voters in heavily black districts during the 1990 U.S. Senate election. The complaint described Farr as a participant in meetings about the mailing and said he had been involved in earlier "ballot security" efforts.

However, Farr said on Monday that he had limited contact with campaign officials before the 1990 mailing and advised them not to send the postcards. His chief involvement was representing the defendants in negotiating a settlement with the Justice Department under which the defendants agreed to take no further actions to intimidate black voters, he said. . . .

The News & Oberver story also links Teabagger organizer and right wing hack, Art Pope, to the GOP strategy to win a majority of Wake County Board seats. Since when does a local school board election merit national attention by GOP wingnuts? Think about it:

. . . .Pope was credited by a local GOP party official with crafting strategies in an October election that earned school board seats for three Republican-backed candidates and landed an allied candidate, John Tedesco, in a runoff that he ultimately won. In an Oct. 7 e-mail from Wake County Republican Party finance chair Marc Scruggs to incumbent board member Ron Margiotta, Scruggs said the GOP had implemented Pope's plan and that it "worked very well."

The election resulted in the new members' and Margiotta's gaining a majority on the nine-member board, with the ability to advance their agenda, including ending the system's diversity policy and mandated year-round schools. Margiotta is now chairman of the school board. . . .

From Detroit to Raleigh: Neo-Nixonian Right Wing Moves to Crush Diversity Policy in Wake County

As a result of President Roosevelt issuing an executive order in 1941 to forbid discrimination in defense industry hiring, huge numbers of African-Americans moved to Detroit to work in industrial and manufacturing jobs that had been only pipe dreams until that time. To contain the influx of blacks, however, within the restricted boundaries of the City of Detroit, racist leaders used residential redlining, "restrictive covenants, white preferences, and discrimination by real estate brokers" to assure the separation of the races (Grant, 2009, p. 146). Detroit's black population grew from 4 percent in 1930 to 40 percent in 1970, even as the leafy suburbs surrounding Detroit blossomed and flowered, thanks to VA and FHA policies that advocated for the creation racially and economically "harmonious" neighborhoods, i. e., whites only.

In 1971 the NAACP legal team sued the City of Detroit for its ongoing history of deliberate policies to create and maintain apartheid housing, as well as segregation of the public schools. The NAACP's most recent evidence was the City's nullifying of a school integration plan in 1971. Federal District Court Judge Stephen Roth, a conservative Democrat, ruled in favor of the NAACP. Here is part of Judge Roth's opinion, as quoted by Grant (2009):

The city of Detroit is a community generally divided by racial lines. Residential segregation within the city and throughout the large metropolitan area is substantial, pervasive and of long standing. Black citizens are located in separate and distinct areas within the city and are not generally to be found in the suburbs. While the racially unrestricted choice of black persons and economic factors may have played some part in the development of this pattern of residential segregation, it is, in the main, the result of past and present practices and customs of racial discrimination, both public and private, which have and do restrict the housing opportunities of black people. On the record, there can be no other finding (p. 146).

Judge Roth's decision was upheld by a three-judge federal Appeals panel, and after the State of Michigan joined Detroit in a further appeal, a full federal Appeals Court affirmed Judge Roth.

In 1974 the U. S. Supreme Court, stacked with Nixon's three new picks who had passed his anti-integration litmus test (see pp. 150-156 of Hope and despair in the American city: Why there are no bad schools in Raleigh), reversed the three previous legal conclusions by the lower courts to strike down, in a 5-4 decision (Milliken v. Bradley), a new Detroit desegregation plan that sought to remedy generations of racist policies, both public and private.

Some school systems pushed on with efforts to desegregate schools, and Wake County, North Carolina was one of them. In 1976, the city and county consolidated their school systems and created a pie-chart configuration of districts that assured that each district got some urban children, with no school getting more than 40 percent minority. In later years, when it became apparent that the Reagan and Bush Courts would put the final nails into the coffin of Brown v. Board of Education, Wake County began to focus desegregation efforts by economic status, rather than skin color. They opened many magnet schools, which attracted large numbers of suburban children to choose schools in the city. And they focused on a culture of excellence and equity, that extended to every child. They recruited teachers and principals who wanted to teach in diverse schools, and they gave big bonuses for National Board certification. Test scores soared, and achievement gaps narrowed. Today there are no bad schools in Raleigh.

All of this makes the Business Roundtable, conservative racists, and the Oligarchs in charge of the U. S. Department of Education very nervous, for if this model of diverse, excellent public schools can be spread to other municipalities, then not only will public education be saved and transformed, but white privilege will be further challenged, desegregation will become a reality, and the apartheid corporate charter industry will go bust. That is why the Republican Party is spending big bucks in North Carolina to get their functionary toadies elected. The most recent election shows the conservatives now with a 5-4 majority on the Wake County School Board. The dismantling of successful economic integration in the public schools is the top priority, as the following piece makes clear. Will this be another Milliken v. Bradley?


WAKE COUNTY (WTVD) -- A large crowd showed up at Tuesday's Wake County School Board meeting as the debate over proposals supported by the new majority of the board intensified.

It turned out that the school board member who introduced the proposal to change mandatory year-round schools decided to withdraw the motion Tuesday, but not before getting an earful from dozens of parents.

Board members listened to public comments for several hours on changing the diversity policy and ending mandatory year-round schools.

"Diversity is not a policy of convenience," student George Ramsey said. "It is a policy of necessity."

"Academic excellence cannot occur without diversity," parent Vickie Adamson said.

Most of the 70 people who signed up to talk seemed to be at odds with the new majority, and asked them to re-consider their proposed changes.

Some went as far as claiming that those changes would lead to re-segregation of the schools.

"Where's the plan," opposer Gary Disnukes said. "Where's the budget. I urge this board to take a step back and not be in a rush to fulfill campaign promises before all ramifications of these promises are understood."

A minority of those present, however, did offer the board support.

"My hope would be for the opposition to embrace the new school board members ... improve the graduation rates and overall academic achievement for our children," supporter Judy Gladden said.

Board members later decided not to take a controversial vote at the end of the meeting.

The school board plans to come up with questions to send out in a survey to parents and make decisions based on their feedback.

The cost of doing the survey ranges from a few thousand to as much as $144,000 depending on how it's conducted.

The board wants responses back by March, so it can work out the school calendar.

Meanwhile, the NAACP is asking the school board for 45 minutes to present some of their concerns at next month's meeting.

The NAACP says it is worried policy changes could essentially re-segregate the school system.

It's not clear if the board will say yes.

Socioeconomic Integration and Achievement

Here is more fuel for an idea long overdue: socioeconomic integration of schools.

From the North County Times:

NORTH COUNTY ---- Wealthier school districts appear to do the best in educating low-income students, state data show.

The data, provided by the California Department of Education, show that poorer students in wealthier districts pass state standardized tests at up to double the rate of similar students in less affluent districts.

Educators said last week that that could be because wealthier districts can offer more individualized help and often have more resources.

In addition, those districts have high numbers of students with strong language skills and that can rub off on low-income students, who often start school a bit behind, said Sandy Gecewicz, chief academic officer for Vista Unified School District.

However, even in wealthier districts, a large achievement gap remains between poorer students and their classmates, the state records show. State and local school officials have said closing the gap is a priority.

"As educators, it's a moral imperative for us to be able to equip all students with the ability to compete and be anything they want in life," said Brenda Jones, assistant superintendent of the Escondido Union Elementary School District. . . .

Economic Integration Moves Forward in Florida's Seminole County

From the Orlando Sentinel:

Seminole County is joining a handful of school systems across the nation that are making integration more a matter of green rather than black and white.

Starting this school year, the district is abandoning racial considerations when deciding who goes to which school.

Instead, household income will become the primary factor in approving student assignments and transfers and will play an important role in decisions that shift attendance zones.

"Our new direction is looking at socioeconomic diversity," said Anna Marie Cote, director of instruction for Seminole schools.

Seminole is among 40 school districts in the nation that have adopted "economic integration" in pupil assignments to some extent, according to a new report by Richard Kahlenberg, a researcher with the nonpartisan Century Foundation, who advocates the approach. Other Florida school districts using economics are Duval, Manatee, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and St. Lucie.

Orange County schools, which have been involved in a school-desegregation lawsuit since 1962, have talked about economic integration, too, although it's uncertain the concept will become part of a settlement. Nevertheless, the school system is considering economics in school-rezoning decisions, district spokesman Dylan Thomas said.

A federal judge last year declared that Seminole County schools were "unitary," which meant they no longer had the remnants of separate education systems for black and white students.

As part of the settlement of the decades-old school-desegregation case, the district agreed to use family wealth rather than student race to balance diversity.

The change may have been timely.

In late June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that while schools need to be diverse, race cannot be the sole deciding factor in assigning students. Several school districts across the country, including Louisville and Seattle, which were the focus of the court case, are considering economic integration as an alternative.

"We are way ahead of the curve," Seminole School Board Attorney Ned Julian said.

While the new policy is no longer based strictly on race, it will continue to affect many black students whose families are poor, along with a large number of Hispanic and white students who live in poverty. . . .