Choosing to Desegregate: The Role of School Choice in Seattle’s Desegregation Efforts from Voluntary Desegregation to Parents Involved in Community Schools

Abstract

Seattle was the first U.S. city to authorize a mandatory desegregation plan without a court order. Yet, it was also the site almost two decades letter of the U.S. Supreme Court case Parents Involved in Community Schools, which deemed Seattle’s remaining race-conscious desegregation policy unconstitutional. This project uses historical content analysis to argue that through desegregation efforts, the use of race-neutral arguments to oppose desegregation and support increased individual choice expanded. PICS represents a decades-long tension between the concepts of freedom of choice and equality. While trying to attract whites to public schools, public officials moved desegregation policy further away from race-conscious, democratically oriented policies towards race-neutral, social mobility-oriented policies. Choice-based enrollment, such as magnet programs and tracking, further stratified schools, therefore weakening the potential power of desegregation policy.