WASHINGTON, D.C.
The debate over whether racial diversity can be a “compelling interest” to justify the use of race in public school admissions will come to an end this week when the U.S. Supreme Court rules in two cases on voluntary desegregation.
In anticipation of the decision, reporters on Tuesday were treated to a debate on the future of affirmative action between Theodore Shaw , president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Inc., and Roger Clegg, president of and general counsel for the Center for Equal Opportunity. The event was part of The National Press Club’s Newsmaker Series.
Shaw said the intent of the Brown v. Board of Education ruling cannot be fully realized without voluntary desegregation, which is what the schools involved in the Supreme Court case were attempting to do.
Shaw and Clegg were debating two cases: Parents involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District et al. and Meredith, Crystal v. Jefferson County Board of Education. Both of the cases deal with school districts voluntary attempts to integrated their schools to ensure racial balance by rejecting both White and minority students from their preferred schools when the groups were over-represented.
Clegg argued that despite evidence from social scientists about the benefits of racial diversity, the school districts were in effect discriminating against the rejected children. The children do not volunteer to be part of discrimination, Clegg said, and the Supreme Court should consider this in its ruling.
“It is hypocritical for a school to tell a child not to judge people based on their race but then tell them that the color of their skin determines whether they go to a certain school or not,” said Clegg.
