Faced with long-term increases in the segregation of its buildings, Seattle Public Schools goes before the U.S. Supreme Court this morning to protect the value of diverse learning communities.
We hope the justices uphold an appeals court decision allowing schools to use race as a small factor to break some ties in the school assignment plan. U.S. children of all backgrounds benefit from learning, playing and relating to one another in classrooms that are as similar as possible to the communities in which they live.
The Bush administration is joining in the attack on the schools' racial tiebreaker, which has been in disuse while the suit by some families has been in court. In a perfect world, we'd agree with ignoring race. Unfortunately, the country has a long history of conscious, legal discrimination once justified by the pseudoscience of racial classification. The hateful, comprehensive U.S. apartheid system continues to affect how communities are organized, where families live and what schools children attend. Some Americans think that, because most apartheid laws were gone by 1970, the issue is closed. Ironically, at the same time, U.S. troops are at risk daily over issues dating from the Crusades.
Biblical, Algonquin and other spiritual traditions speak of delivery from inequities after many generations. We trust legal remedies for segregation can end sooner. But with minority children still subjected to inferior schools, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund rightly warns a decision against desegregation in Seattle and Louisville, Ky., would abandon the Brown v. Board of Education ruling's demands for equal education. 
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