Curriculum

Parents Fight H.S. Boundaries

By Mary Ann Zehr — September 27, 2005 1 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Michael Winsten, who is fighting a voluntary-integration plan in a California school district, says some people think the parents in his group are “not-in-my-backyard type of people” and don’t want their children to mix with children of other racial or ethnic backgrounds.

That’s not the case, says the lawyer and parent of five children. The agenda of the nonprofit group he founded, Neighborhood Schools for Our Kids, is to ensure that children can attend schools close to their homes, he says.

Mr. Winsten, and his wife, Cheryl, a paralegal, who are white, are plaintiffs in a lawsuit pending against the 50,400-student Capistrano Unified district, located in San Juan Capistrano, Calif.

The lawsuit claims the district is violating Proposition 209—a California constitutional amendment approved by voters in 1996—by using race or ethnicity as a factor in drawing attendance boundaries for a high school expected to open in the fall of 2006.

Mr. Winsten says he doesn’t want his children to be forced to drive six miles to high school just so the district can conduct “social engineering” and try to get the right racial and ethnic mix of students.

Instead, he wants his children to be able to attend a high school three miles from their home, where he says they’ll be able to keep up the friendships they formed in middle school, and where they will still mix with students of different races and ethnic origins.

At the time of its passage, Proposition 209 was expected to stop the use of affirmative action programs that give preference to minorities in hiring for state contracts or admission to public colleges and universities.

But the Sacramento, Calif.-based Pacific Legal Foundation, a conservative public-interest firm representing Mr. Winsten’s group, contends that Proposition 209 applies to K-12 education as well.

The Capistrano lawsuit was filed in June in the state superior court of Orange County.

The district has argued in court documents that it didn’t draw any boundaries based on the race or ethnicity of students. District officials simply examined demographics to make sure they weren’t creating a school that would isolate some students according to their ethnic backgrounds, the documents say.

Plus, said David C. Larsen, the lawyer for the school district, “it’s our contention that the plaintiffs’ reading of Proposition 209 far exceeds the intent of the voters.”

A version of this article appeared in the September 28, 2005 edition of Education Week

Events

This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Webinar
Reimagining Grading in K-12 Schools: A Conversation on the Value of Standards-Based Grading
Hear from K-12 educational leaders and explore standards-based grading benefits and implementation strategies and challenges
Content provided by Otus
Reading & Literacy Webinar How Background Knowledge Fits Into the ‘Science of Reading’ 
Join our webinar to learn research-backed strategies for enhancing reading comprehension and building cultural responsiveness in the classroom.
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Assessment Webinar
Innovative Strategies for Data & Assessments
Join our webinar to learn strategies for actionable instruction using assessment & analysis.
Content provided by Edulastic

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Curriculum Teaching Digital Literacy: Should U.S. Schools Do More to Combat Misinformation?
In the U.S., attempts to teach internet literacy have run into political opposition from people who equate it to thought control.
5 min read
Ballard High School students work together to solve an exercise at MisinfoDay, an event hosted by the University of Washington to help high school students identify and avoid misinformation, Tuesday, March 14, 2023, in Seattle. Educators around the country are pushing for greater digital media literacy education.
Ballard High School students work together to solve an exercise at MisinfoDay, an event hosted by the University of Washington to help high school students identify and avoid misinformation, Tuesday, March 14, 2023, in Seattle. Educators around the country are pushing for greater digital media literacy education.
Manuel Valdes/AP
Curriculum When It Comes to SEL, Administrators and Teachers See Things Differently
There is a yawning gap between administrators and teachers in how thoroughly they think SEL programs are being put to work in schools.
7 min read
Photo of girl leaning against locker.
Getty
Curriculum Status Check: The Top Challenges to Social-Emotional Learning and How to Address Them
SEL Day 2023 finds social-emotional learning at a key moment: Interest is strong but so is political pushback.
3 min read
Image of dissatisfied, neutral, satisfied.
ThitareeSarmkasat/iStock/Getty
Curriculum Scaling Up Media Literacy Education Is a Big Challenge: 4 Steps to Get Started
School librarians shared challenges they face and what resources they need to expand media literacy instruction.
2 min read