De Facto School Segregation: A Constitutional and Empirical Analysis

Abstract

No issue of our time has drawn the courts more deeply into the vortex of social change and conflict than that of school segregation.In the 18 years since Brown v. Board of Education,' the Court, falteringly at first, decisively at last, has spelled out the remedial obligations of communities that had deliberately segregated children by race in their public schools. 2That task is nearly completed. 3 However, the problem of de facto segregation-racial imbalance resulting merely from adherence to the traditional, racially neutral, neighborhood school policy in a community marked by racially segregated residential patterns 4 -has yet to be faced.On this issue, the Supreme Court has t The author owes more than he can say to Professor Jesse Choper, without whom this Article would not have seen daylight.He is indebted also to Professor Steven Goldstein for much help and useful criticism.