NPR : Schools Worry About Fate of Desegregation Efforts: Schools are reopening this year under a new legal cloud: Districts around the country must decide whether they can continue using race to assign students to schools. In June, the Supreme Court struck down the use of race in school assignment plans in Seattle and Louisville, Ky. Those districts are already revising their assignment plans. But many other school systems are hoping that local support will help them avoid court challenges to their desegregation efforts. Chester Darling has been fighting desegregation plans for decades. The Massachusetts attorney hailed this year's Supreme Court ruling and says he knows what he would like to do about school systems that still use race to decide who attends a particular school. 'I would go after every single one of them,' Darling announces. 'It's wrong. You just don't sort kids by color and deny benefits to them because of the color of their skin.' Desegregation is still a touchy issue around Boston, the scene of violent protests over school busing in the 1970s. Supporters of desegregation plans now worry the pendulum has swung back to those bad old days.
