When federal courts began vigorously enforcing the Brown v. Board of Education decision in the late 1960s, Southern public schools became the most integrated in the country and held that distinction for more than thirty years. Recently, schools in the South, and throughout the United States, have experienced rapid resegregation, disproportionately excluding the growing population of African American and Latino students from equal educational opportunities and access to social capital.
This conference focuses on the future of public education in the wake of the United States
Supreme Court's 2007 decision in Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1 (PICS). The PICS decision is widely known for placing limits on what school districts can do to voluntarily pursue racially integrated schools. But the PICS decision also is important for what it left in place. In PICS, a majority of justices affirmed that school districts have a compelling interest in operating racially integrated public schools. Even though PICS limits how school districts may pursue voluntary integration, the decision, nonetheless, protects their fundamental right to craft creative integration plans for their local schools.
Today our nation stands at a crossroads. We can do nothing and allow a half century of legal and social victories for our nation's children to be reversed; or we can apply our knowledge to address the resegregation crisis. This conference will heighten scholarly understanding of the PICS decision and promote discussion about immediate and long-term policy options available to school districts across the nation for whom racial integration remains a priority. More than 20 nationally acclaimed social scientists and attorneys will discuss topics including:
- Making the Case for Integration;
- Evaluating Socioeconomic Based Assignment Plans;
- Finding Viable Legal Strategies for Racial Equity post-PICS;
- Building Political Will for Integrated Schools post-PICS; and
- Achieving Racial Equity through Strategic Public Policies.