There's a new movement among parents of grade school kids and the banner cry is: No more homework!

Last week, the US  Soliciter General  filed the first briefs in the upcoming case. You can take a look at some quotes in this LA Times article. Here's the core of the argument, as far as I can tell: Now that we've solved the problems caused by segregated schools, to continue to consider race in school assignment is legalized discrimination.

Unfortunately, the problems associated with segregated schools are far from solved. Black and Latino students, considered as a group, still attend largely segregated, sub-standard schools and have lower test scores than Whites. The Harvard Civil Rights Project does a great job of reporting on analyzing it all.  

Even if this decision upholds integration by race, it won't accomplish what needs to be done. As MotherTalkers noted last time I posted about this,  what we need is the public will to integrate schools. It's not there yet.

We have never accomplished it, rarely even come close--but I still believe that integrated schools are worth fighting for. By integrated, I mean schools that reflect, proportionally, the ethnic diversity of their district. I mean districts where  Black and Latino kids are not stuck in schools with fewer resources and less experienced teachers than those serving Whites and Asians across town.

Brown v Board of Education was the historic Supreme Court decision that, over 50 years ago, declared  "separate but equal" an absurd contradiction in terms and paved the way for courts to order districts to desegregate their schools. Soon the Supreme Court will make another landmark ruling, on two race-based school assignments schemes in Seattle and Louisville.

Fred Rogers was a gentle genius who made television aimed at moral and emotional development--for children and for grown ups who could understand the message.

From 1982 on, my job has been making successful learning experiences for kids who are usually excluded: poor, non-white kids, particularly in urban areas--from teaching in Kenya and Harlem to working with teachers in California. My daughter was born in 1997 and before we knew it, it was time to make school choices for her. My husband and I agreed, with almost no discussion, on 3 essential criteria, in order of importance:
 

1. Culturally and economically diverse student body.
2. Something important we couldn't provide for her ourselves.
3. A start time of 8:30 or later.

Public school was just assumed; we didn't even need to put it on our short list.