SF Schools Consent Decree will expire Dec. 31, 2005

United States District Judge William Alsup has just ruled today that the SF Unified School District's Consent Decree will expire December 31, 2005. He rejected the NAACP's request for an 18 month extention of the decree.
In the 11/8/05 ruling the Judge stated:
"[t]he consent decree has proven to be ineffective, if not counterproductive, in achieving diversity in SF public schools...
As the decree has come to be used, the Court must pretend to supervise decisions better left in the hands of education professionals subject to the rough and tumble of local politics and government."

Now it is up to our Board of Education and district to ensure fairness and equity in our student assignment system and also in how we distribute our resources as well. We have been meeting with community advocates and the researchers from the Harvard Civil Rights Project and other groups to come up with a new system that can allow our district to counter the rapid resegregation going on in our district and urban districts around the country.
For more history on the Consent Decree from this blog see
Consent Decree Monitor's report on resegregation in SF Schools
Racial Justice and the SF Schools
History of the dramatic White and Middle Class Flight in SF Schools