Thursday, June 23, 2005

Racial Preferences Redux: The Seattle Story

In 2002, parents took Seattle public schools to court in order to stop the school system from using a pupil's skin color as a factor when reviewing applications from parents who were seeking to enroll their children in the public school of their choice.

The parents won, and the Seattle school system was forced to stop using race as a factor. Naturally, Seattle's educrats weren't very happy with the decision.

Now, in 2005, the
educrats and their pet board who run this particular school system aren't about to let the parents get away with telling them what to do.

Nope. The Seattle School District is
finally gonna show those parents who's boss.

Update: (6/27/05) Commenter Jonathan of Overeducation has supplied us with some very convincing evidence that the Seattle School District is indeed responsive to the concerns of parents. Therefore, we have been overly harsh in our criticism of the district's administration. Our assertion that "the educrats and their pet board who run this particular school system aren't about to let the parents get away with telling them what to do," isn't supported by evidence from the source.

Often, (as in my own district) superintendents do come to dominate a school district, and governing boards are simply "rubber stamps" for their (often authoritative) decisions. But absent evidence or intimate knowledge of this situation, we shouldn't have made that assertion.

We thank Jonathan for the Reality Check and for reminding us of the importance of not reading into a MSM source inferences that do not exist, and the importance of choosing one's words with care.

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