Background/Context: In "Milliken v. Bradley" (1974), the U.S. Supreme Court deemed unconstitutional a metropolitan-wide desegregation plan in Detroit that sought to achieve racial balance in part by busing white suburban students to the city's majority black schools. In a stark departure from "Brown v. Board of Education of…

Examines the courts' role in desegregating American schools in the 40 years since "Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas" and discusses reasons why desegregation is still a desirable goal for public schools. Having recognized its limited power to end segregation during the 1970s, the U.S. Supreme Court is gradually relinquishing…

Surveys school desegregation litigation and policy interpretation at three federal judiciary levels. Finds the Supreme Court championing local school control, while district courts and the courts of appeals read remedial powers of federal courts more expansively. (MD)

Title I, concerned with providing equal learning opportunities for disadvantaged students, is the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act's centerpiece and has been institutionalized in U.S. schools. Recent reauthorizations have allowed local districts and schools to determine which type of program will best serve students' needs. (18…

In a recent series of decisions, the Supreme Court has set the standard for returning control of vital school affairs to local school officials. Discusses the legal bases school officials and their legal counsel might use in showing that their school district has attained so-called unitary status, the condition for lifting federal desegregation…

Kirp examines the evolution of Supreme Court doctrine since the Brown decision, the course of specific desegregation cases, and the interchange between political institutions and the courts at the local level. He reveals that the decision-making process in school desegregation is both political and constitutional. (Author/SK)

This paper argues that courts have tended to identify and enforce individual rights at the expense, in many instances, of the ability of school boards and legislatures to carry out what they perceive to be the will of the majority of voters in their jurisdictions. The trend emphasizing individual rights began in 1954 with the Supreme Court…