Supreme Court Hears Seattle Racial Tiebreaker Case

12/04/2006 at 12:00 p.m.

This morning the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in the case of Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District. The issue is – should race be a factor in public school admissions? Well, should it? What do you think?

Seattle students can choose the school they wish to attend. Sometimes too many students want to get into one school. In those cases the district would like to use race as one factor to decide who gets in. The goal is racial diversity. Critics say the result is racial discrimination. The racial tiebreaker policy has been under court challenge for six years. The Seattle district stopped using it four years ago. The U.S. Supreme Court will settle the Seattle case once and for all… and the decision may also have big implications for other public school districts which encourage racial diversity by their admission policies.