The California Supreme Court has refused to hear a challenge brought by a conservative group against Berkeley’s school integration practices. According to the Chron, the high court’s decision means an appellate court ruling from earlier this year that upheld Berkeley’s methods is now state law. Berkeley’s integration model survived legal challenge because it does not assign students to schools based on their individual race, which is prohibited under Proposition 9, the anti-affirmative-action measure. Instead, Berkeley assigns students based on the demographics of their neighborhoods. The court’s ruling means that school districts up and down the state that have segregated schools can choose to integrate them, using Berkeley’s model. It’ll be interesting to see whether other urban school districts, such as Oakland and San Francisco, which have some highly segregated schools, will now adopt Berkeley’s methods – and finally bring an end to separate and unequal schools.
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