Whatever the ruling, tiebreaker may be moot

For six years, Kathleen Brose has led the parent group that sued Seattle Public Schools in 2000 over its use of race in deciding school assignments. Since then, her oldest daughter has graduated and the district scrapped its racial-tiebreaker admissions policy.

But for Brose, the Supreme Court's decision on Monday to hear the much-litigated Seattle case is more about other people's kids than her own.

The high court has put Seattle at the center of a national debate over the use of skin color in assigning students to public schools. The court also accepted a case out of Louisville, Ky., where the school district had been under court order to end institutionalized segregation.

"We need to answer this question once and for all: Are they going to use race when assigning to schools?" Brose said.

Brose's daughter had wanted to attend Ballard High, the school closest to home, but instead she was assigned to Franklin High across town because she is white.

Over the ensuing years of litigation, Brose's group, Parents Involved in Community Schools, has been to court numerous times, losing three times and winning twice.

The district has spent $327,500 on the case since 1999.

Tiebreaker debate

July 2000: Parents Involved in Community Schools sues Seattle Public Schools over its use of a racial tiebreaker to assign some students to high schools.

April 2001: U.S. District Court Judge Barbara Rothstein of Seattle upholds the tiebreaker, saying it counteracts the city's segregated neighborhoods and does not violate the preferential-treatment ban of voter-approved Initiative 200.

April 2002: A 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel rules 3-0 that the tiebreaker violates the state's I-200. Ballard High principal David Engle resigns to protest the federal court's decision, saying it will resegregate his school.

June 2002: The federal court withdraws its earlier ruling and says the state Supreme Court should answer the I-200 question. Although the court lifts its injunction against the tiebreaker, the school district decides to suspend its use until the legal questions are resolved.

June 2003: State Supreme Court, in an 8-1 ruling, says assigning students on the basis of race does not violate I-200's prohibition on racial preference, because it affects students of all races in a similar manner. The constitutional question goes back to the federal appeals court.

July 2004: A 9th Circuit panel again rejects the tiebreaker, this time in a 2-1 decision, saying it violates constitutional guarantees of equal protection.

June 2005: A 9th Circuit panel hears the case after the district appeals it.

October 2005: The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upholds the tiebreaker.

Monday: The U.S. Supreme Court agrees to hear the case.

As it now stands, Seattle high-school students can choose where they want to go unless their school is projected to run out of space. In that case, the district uses several tiebreakers — including where siblings go to school and the distance students live from the school — to determine who is admitted to popular schools. Before 2001-02, the district also used race as a tiebreaker.

Because the school district stopped using the race tiebreaker after the 2001-02 school year, it's unclear how the Supreme Court's ruling will play out locally.

School Board President Brita Butler-Wall said she isn't sure whether the School Board would put the racial tiebreaker back into play should the court side with the district.

This fall, the board plans to consider limiting school choice to try to save money on transportation. Re-examining the use of tiebreakers could be part of that process, Butler-Wall said. By moving popular programs from one school to another, the district also can influence enrollment choices, she said.

Since the district ended the use of its racial tiebreaker, some high schools have grown less ethnically diverse.

At Ballard High, for example, 43.2 percent of students were minority in 2001-02; by 2004-05, that had dropped to 37 percent.

At Franklin High, 79 percent of the students were identified as minority in the 2001-02 school year. By 2004-05, that had grown to 87 percent.

But the shift isn't necessarily a bad thing, according to Brose, since it probably means more kids are attending their neighborhood school.

"You have a lot of neighborhood kids around Franklin who can go to their neighborhood school," she said. "When they save those spots for the white kids, then those kids couldn't go to that school and they were bused to the North End, and then those kids don't have access to after-school activities."

Though Brose's youngest daughter is at her school of choice, Ingraham High, she said she still feels strongly about the issue.

Her group's attorney, Harry Korrell, said he never expected the litigation would last so long, but he believes it's important to make sure the district doesn't use race as a factor again.

"If you stop using race and just let students go where they want to go, you're going to have really diverse schools," he said.

Emily Heffter: 206-464-8246 or eheffter@seattletimes.com