Barbara Flynn Currie.

18 December 2009

News from Springfield..................by State Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie (D-25)

The federal courts recently ended oversight of the Chicago Public School system's progress in racial and ethnic integration of the student body. Under the federal decree, CPS was required to guarantee specific racial and ethnic enrollment goals for magnet and selective enrollment schools. Two years ago a United States Supreme Court decision cast doubt on the ability of a school system, absent federal court intervention, to take race into account in individual cases.

The CPS response for the next academic year is to ignore race entirely in its admission policies for these schools. It will instead rely solely on socio-economic status (SES). The SES standard will not attach to a particular student applicant, but rather reflect the general geography of the student's neighborhood. However, even within a single census tract, let alone an entire neighborhood, great variations in social class are not unusual.

My colleagues state Rep. Will Burns (D-26) and Sen. Kwame Raoul (D-13) and I are sufficiently concerned about the possible loss of minority enrollment in our high-performing magnet and selective enrollment schools that we wrote an open letter to CPS chief Ron Huberman.

We think the Supreme Court decision does not deny a school system the ability to use race at all as a factor in the admissions process. Justice Kennedy's controlling opinion makes clear that while race cannot be used as the sole factor, race can be used in a nuanced way to promote racial and ethnic diversity. As Justice Kennedy wrote, "the decision today should not prevent school districts from continuing the important work of bringing together students of different racial, ethnic and economic backgrounds."

The Louisville school system took Kennedy's words to heart and continues to use race as one factor in the admissions process. We suggest CPS embrace this approach rather than relying solely on SES.

Racial diversity dropped significantly in the San Franciso, Charlotte and Cambridge public schools when student assignment plans were based solely on SES.

Ours is a diverse city. To ensure our continued viability and vibrancy we must continue our commitment to inclusion and equal opportunity. Without using race as a factor, we fear that our magnet and selective enrollment schools will no longer reflect the diversity that makes our city great.

We hope Mr. Huberman will reconsider his decision. We think he would be on solid ground if he used race as one factor in the admissions policy and we fear that, if he won't, CPS will find itself taking several steps backwards in the struggle to ensure truly equal opportunity to all our children.

I'll let you know Mr. Huberman's response.

######################