Seattle schools suffer a setback

By Gene Johnson

Associated Press

SEATTLE — The Seattle School District cannot use race as a tiebreaker for high school admissions while it contests a ruling that found its use of the tiebreaker illegal, a federal appeals court panel said Friday.

The decision means the district must redo its assignments for possibly hundreds of students entering high school next fall.

Earlier this month, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the school district’s policy, which aims to make schools more racially mixed by giving preference to underrepresented races.

The district on Friday filed its appeal, asking the full court in San Francisco to review the ruling. School officials say ensuring diversity is a legitimate educational goal. In the meantime, they had hoped to continue using the tiebreaker, but the three-judge panel said no.

District spokeswoman Lynn Steinberg said the school board expected Friday’s ruling, and so last week it began reworking its assignments for students entering elementary, middle and high school.

"For all intents and purposes, we knew this was going to happen," she said.

The district usually notifies students of school assignments by early May, but postponed notification for a month this year because of the ruling. She said the racial tiebreaker was a factor for fewer than 300 incoming freshmen.

In Seattle, students may pick which high schools they would like to attend. If too many students pick the same school, the district uses tiebreakers to determine who will be admitted.

The first tiebreaker is whether a student has a brother or sister already attending the school. The second is race.

Race is far less a factor in elementary and middle schools, where geography is considered as the second tiebreaker.

The racial tiebreaker policy was challenged by four families who say their children have been or may be denied admission to the schools of their choice because of their race. The state’s Initiative 200, passed by voters in 1998, banned racial preferences in government jobs, contracts and school admissions.

A U.S. District judge upheld the policy last year, saying that it was fair because it applied to whites and nonwhites alike. The appeals panel struck it down, saying I-200 was clear in banning consideration of race.

On Thursday, popular Ballard High School Principal David Engle announced his resignation in protest of the ruling, saying it will lead to increasingly segregated schools. His action drew a standing ovation at a school assembly.