Friday, August 03, 2007

Schools' course since race ruling OK'd

Fall assignments won't change

This from Chris Kenning at The Courier-Journal:

Jefferson County Public Schools' decision to stop using race for new student assignments and transfers is "entirely consistent with the U.S. Supreme Court's decision," a federal judge said yesterday.

In a court hearing, Chief U.S. District Judge John Heyburn said the high court's recent 5-4 decision allows the district to adopt any plan it wants by any date -- as long as it doesn't use race to assign individual students to schools.

School board Chairman Joe Hardesty said yesterday's hearing means that "there's no reason we can't proceed on the timetable we've established" for instituting a new student-assignment plan by the 2009-10 school year.

Attorney Teddy Gordon, who represented parent Crystal Meredith in the lawsuit that led to the Supreme Court ruling and requested the hearing, did not object to the timeline...

...Heyburn brushed aside Gordon's implication that the district might still be applying race but using the lack of space as an excuse, saying Gordon offered no credible evidence.

"If anyone is denied a transfer in violation of the Supreme Court decision, I'll take it up on a case

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