Lynn, Massachusetts’ schools have been a model of integration ever since it adopted its voluntary system in 1988, with all students seeing increased test scores, improved attendance, and higher graduation rates. But now forces are calling once again for segregation of the schools. One of the leaders of that fight is the director of the local chapter of the NAACP, Yolanda Morris.

Lynn is a suburb north of Boston, with a population of around 100,000. The population is diverse, with 58% white, 9% black, 23% Hispanic, and the other 10% comprised of a large number of ethnic groups.

Lynn’s program is a model for parent choice and diversity, and has been adopted by 20 other schools in Massachusetts. Massachusetts tests highest in the nation for student achievement. And studies have proven that integration improves test scores for black and other minority students.

Yet, Morris believes that segregating the schools into “separate but equal” schools should be the goal for the district, a plan damned by the NAACP in the 1950s, banned by the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education, and outlawed by federal law during the 1960s. And a plan that the June, 2007 Supreme Court ruling could force upon us all, while school districts face losing funding if they fail to improve overall test scores as mandated under the No Child Left Behind Act.

Just south of Boston, the Milton schools are facing a separate fight, but this time with white parents fighting the redistricting plan that would gradually put more children from a predominately white neighborhood into the neighboring Tucker school which is 65% black.
The redistricting in Milton involved changing the boundaries for two adjoining schools, and moved 38 blocks from those two schools to Tucker. The district’s motivation – improving the test scores for the predominately black school.

White parents in Milton objected to their children being used solely to improve the test scores at Tucker, and a federal lawsuit is expected with the ammunition provided by the Supreme Court ruling.

Urban school districts are aiming at a moving target blindfolded while trying to decide how to achieve integration, without using race in determining how to do so. Some districts, such as Milton, are trying to accomplish this task by drawing maps that determine what is a neighborhood, and then assigning children to neighborhood schools.

Other school boards, such as the schools in Louisville, Kentucky and Champaign, Illinois are under federal decrees ordering them to create a segregation plan. Those boards are scratching their heads trying to come to terms with what amounts to a no-win situation for them – comply and achieve a more balanced racial mix in their schools, without using race in determining where students will attend.