Dr_Flowers(A)  I think in light of the recent ruling, it would be necessary for any group that wished to support this type of legal challenge to ensure that they have considered other alternatives, in addition to race, that supports any admission policy. This ruling makes evident the importance of justifying the rationale and system in maintaining racially-balanced schools.

Margaret (comment)With the significant financial and time commitments school districts have made to develop accountability plans to adhere to No Child Left Behind policies, do you think schools have the will or desire to engage in a struggle to create new ways to utilize race-based preferences for maintaining diversity?

dr_tatum(P)   A comment I want to make is that so far the discussions focuses on the impact of the decision on Black children, but I think it is important to say that White children are also negatively impacted by attending racially isolated schools. White children in all-white schools are not prepared for a diverse society. 

Add_Seymour_Jr.(Q)  What will this decision do for the charter school movement?

Dr_Wells(A)  This is a good question. I actually think it will do very little for charter schools, given that most of them are fairly segregated by race as it is. While most state charter school laws require charter school applications to explain how the school will recruit a student body that is reflective of the racial make up of the surrounding school district, very few charter schools actually do this. Thus, they tend to be even more racially segregated than nearby public schools. There are many reasons for this - including the lack of transportation and outreach money available to charter schools to attract students from across segregated neighborhoods. In other instances, the racial homogeneity of a charter school is an attraction to some parents. Either way, they tend to be very segregated at the school level when you disaggregate the data, and I do not think this decision will affect that much at all unless more charter schools take on "diversity" as their theme and identity and then try to work within Kennedy's suggested measures to achieve that goal. Thus far, there seems to be limited political support for such efforts within the charter school movement.