Terry,
Roger Clegg of the Center for Equal Opportunity also responded to Arne Duncan’s letter, this time on The Corner.
In addition to citing a point you raised ? Wake County’s program was designed to satisfy economic rather than racial diversity ? Clegg notes that
social scientists disagree on whether greater racial diversity in public schools has any positive effects at all, and even if there are some marginal positive effects, school boards can legitimately conclude that the social and monetary costs of race-based student assignments outweigh them. …
More fundamentally, if the now-rescinded policy was used with an eye toward achieving particular racial results, that would raise serious problems under the federal civil-rights laws that Secretary Duncan is supposed to be enforcing. Such race-based student assignments would also be inconsistent with the American ?core values? and ?racial equality? that he cites.
Not a good job by the secretary.
