Bush Administration Opposes Voluntary Use of Race in K-12 Schools

The Bush administration has urged the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down school assignment plans that use race to help determine which students may enroll in specific public schools.

The administration argues in legal briefs filed in two potentially landmark cases that the voluntary use of race to foster diversity in student populations violates the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection of the law.

“School districts have an unquestioned interest in reducing minority isolation through race-neutral means. But the solution to addressing racial imbalance in communities or student bodies is not to adopt race-conscious measures,” says the brief filed by U.S. Solicitor General Paul D. Clement in a case involving the Seattle...