Integration ruling and LAUSD

In a move expected to spur Los Angeles Unified and other districts across the country to re-evaluate racial-integration programs, the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday restricted the use of race in assigning students to schools. Harrison Sheppard in the Daily News.

The 5-4 ruling from Washington, D.C., leaves the door open for the limited use of race to achieve diversity in schools, but some decried the decision as a step toward weakening landmark integration reforms of five decades ago.

Analysts also said the sharply split decision in two cases, affecting students assigned to schools in Louisville, Ky., and Seattle, could imperil similar plans in hundreds of districts nationwide.

Los Angeles Unified School District officials said they are still reviewing the cases with outside legal counsel but believe the decision should have no immediate effect on the district's current court-ordered integration plan.

LAUSD General Counsel Kevin Reed said the district is operating under a court-ordered integration plan, dating back to 1982, that has already been upheld by the U.S. Suipreme Court.