Educational Issue in the U.S. Supreme Court Essay

Educational Issue in the U.S. Supreme Court - Essay Example In the words of the new Chief Justice at the time, John Roberts, "The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.† This is a key remark and the key to understanding the view the court has taken of race and education since the landmark ruling of Brown v. Board of Education. What this really means for classroom practice is that we should see students for all that they are, not just the colour of their skin. Many people who wanted to so-called public school choice plans were keen to get more diversity in their school districts. That’s not a bad idea, but as with so many things when you being to legislate something that doesn’t always obvious follow. The government is not the best way to go about such business. Diversity is a lot more than race and using such superficial qualifications to impose diversity would likely not create diversity in the first place. The court ruled that looking on at race in the drive for greater diversity was unconstitutional and effectively a reversal of Brown v. Board of Education. Justice Breyer used a phrase, "Never in the history of the court have so few done so much so quickly." And he was talking about Chief Justice Roberts and Justice [Samuel] Alito making this court a far more conservative institution in just one year. And at that phrase, "And never have so few done so much so quickly," both Justice Alito and Chief Justice Roberts looked over at Breyer and went, whoa, thats pretty personal by the standards of the Supreme Court. (Toobin, 2007) It is clear that some parents may still have different views of what diversity means compared to the court and would like impose more racial diversity even if it means limiting students choice. It is important to be mindful of this. What this case also means is that there is a little bit of a rollback of the Nanny State is on that uses excessive state controls, be they regulations or laws, to restrict its