School Diversity Based on Income Segregates Some

The New York Times analyzed integration plans in place in San Francisco, Raleigh, Wake County, and Cambridge, to determine whether such plans, which use socio-economic status as the primary measure of student integration, achieve racial diversity. The sad truth, according to Times reporters Jonathan Glater and Alan Finder, is that districts which implement income diversity plans instead of race based diversity plans often experience racial resegregation.

The article focuses on San Francisco, where "David Campos, the general counsel to the school district, said the resegregation was so disappointing that the school board might try to test whether Justice Anthony M. Kennedy’s opinion in the recent Supreme Court case left open the possibility of using race if other methods of integration fail.

“We stopped using race at some point,” Mr. Campos said. “And then for a number of years we have tried to use a number of race-neutral factors to achieve racial diversity, which methods haven’t worked. Should the board decide to use race, and they may or may not, we are a very good test case."