Brown Lives

Forget the pandering by the Democratic candidates. Last week's Supreme Court decision on racial integration was no abandonment of Brown. It was in many ways its logical extension in a new era. Steve Chapman explains:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who found the decision "appalling," asserted that since Brown, "it has been settled law that the Constitution requires racially mixed schools."

In fact, what the court ordered back then was not "racially mixed schools." What it ordered was the removal of laws and policies prohibiting racially mixed schools. The principle it upheld was nondiscrimination -- which would often (but not always) lead to racial integration...

The real educational problems faced by minority kids today are not lack of white students to sit by but inadequate choice, lack of order, a shortage of good teachers and families who don't make a priority of learning. Most parents, given a choice between racially balanced schools and safe, sound schools, would unhesitatingly choose the latter. In the wake of this decision, education officials can now focus more on what's really important.