From The Seattle Times: The Seattle public school system has officially returned to a neighborhood-based system of assigning students to schools, similar to one it abandoned about 30 years ago in the name of racial integration. The School Board has approved a new set of boundaries for most of the district's schools that will determine where students will be guaranteed a spot. The boundaries will be phased in starting next fall. Mandatory busing for integration ended more than a decade ago. Since then, the district's assignment plan has evolved into an often-confusing system that, while based largely on geography, has not guaranteed students a place at any particular school.
JUNE 2008: After decades of integration efforts in the Seattle School District that culminated in a U.S. Supreme Court decision, the racial imbalance of the 1970s is back. The school board is weighing what, if anything, to do about the situation. As the board plans a major overhaul of how it assigns students to schools, its members face conflicting desires. Do they assign more students to schools close to their homes? Do they try to ensure racial diversity at every school?
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