District Administration - September 2012 - (Page 88)

Professional oPinion • John Munich, Jamie Boyer, erin Guffey Potential Pitfalls of Using Race in the K12 Admissions Process The new guidelines issued by the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights pose risks for school districts that employ them. he issue of whether race can or should play a role in school admissions has long plagued school districts and the courts. As districts across the country struggle to achieve diversity in a legally permissible way, whether and to what extent race may be used remains a thorny issue. Educators searching for answers encounter a complicated body of law that often leads to more questions than answers. This issue became even more complicated on December 2, 2011, when the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights issued guidelines to explain how K12 schools may legally consider race in the admissions process. According to the guidelines, districts may use individual race classifications when assigning or allocating students so long as these practices are carefully crafted to achieve diversity and limit racial isolation. While the DOE cautions districts that they should first consider race-neutral approaches, the guidelines further state that districts are only required to use race-neutral alternatives if they are workable. Are DOE guidelines constitutional? The problem with the DOE’s guidelines, however, is that they are constitutionally questionable and pose significant risks for school districts that employ them. The current state of the law does not support, and in some cases directly refutes, the DOE’s position. Consequently, districts should proceed with extreme caution T Protestors gathered in front of the Supreme Court in D.C. Dec. 4, 2006 as the court heard arguments on lawsuits by parents in Louisville and Seattle who were challenging policies that use race to help determine where children go to school. when deciding whether to employ race as a factor in admissions policies. The legal issues surrounding race- conscious admissions policies have their roots in the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. This 1868 law protects people from disparate treatment based on their race or ethnicity. Because of this protection, all race-based actions are subject to strict scrutiny. Accordingly, a party employing such a policy must demonstrate that the use of race is necessary to further a compelling government interest and that the process is as narrowly tailored as possible to achieve its goal. Supreme Court decisions The Supreme Court first considered the role of race in school admissions policies in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, a 1978 case that involved medical school admissions. Unfortunately, the resulting opinion was highly fractured, featuring two plurality opinions that carried four justices each. In the end, the only official holding in Bakke was that excluding an applicant from medical school on the basis of race was unconstitutional. Continued on page 90 88 September 2012 District Administration

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - September 2012

District Administration - September/October 2012
Contents
From the Editor
Letters
News Update
Curriculum Update
Inside the Law
District Profile
Administrator Profile
Product Focus
Resistance to High-Stakes Testing Spreads
Postgraduation for Special Needs Students
Rick & Becky DuFour
CIo News
Getting the Best ROI in Technology
Shaping a Digital Decade
Professional Opinion
Professional Opinion
Online Edge
Going Mobile
New Products
New Directions

District Administration - September 2012