Racism Allowed

The Seattle Times reports:

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday upheld Seattle Public Schools' use of race as a tiebreaker in assigning students to popular high schools, and the plaintiffs vowed to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The ruling comes on the heels of decisions by federal appellate judges in the 1st and 6th Circuits upholding local school authorities' use of race as a factor in student-assignment plans in Massachusetts and Kentucky. Plaintiffs in all three cases sued on the basis that the school districts' plans violated their individual rights to equal protection under the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Seattle suspended its use of the racial tiebreaker after the 2001-02 year because of the litigation.

Here's how the racial tiebreaker worked: When a high school received more applicants than it had seats for, a series of tiebreakers gave assignment preference to students.

What if you are the wrong race and you still have to pay taxes to support the system? Fairness?