Seeking nominees

The Florida African American Education Alliance is accepting nominations of students, teachers, administrators and community leaders who are leading the way in math, science, engineering and technology education for recognition.

Regional finalists will be invited to attend the group's 2008 summit and recognition program on Jan. 20-21 in Orlando.

Know someone who fits the bill? The group will take nominations through Nov. 20. Visit its web site for more information.

All things integration, all the time

So the initial flurry of news reports related to the Supreme Court's ruling on race and schools is coming to an end. Still hungry for more? Check out the NAACP Legal Defense Fund's blog on school integration.

Billed as a national clearinghouse for information, the site looks to be a comprehensive resource that can help you stay up to speed on the court decision, which could affect hundreds of school districts. Contributors include researchers, attorneys and graduate students interested in integration.

We are too. Keep us in the loop if you come across any good ideas that school districts around Florida might want to consider as they move into the post-desegregation future.

High court limits schools on race

In a ruling that appears to mark the end of the desegregation era, a divided U.S. Supreme Court said Thursday that voluntary integration plans in Seattle and Louisville were unconstitutional.

The court split 5-4, with Chief Justice John Roberts announcing the court's judgment. Justice Stephen Breyer wrote a dissent that was joined by the court's other three liberals. Read the full story.

The ruling affects school districts across the nation, including in Tampa Bay. Pinellas school officials have been waiting for the court's guidance as they devise a new plan to assign students to schools that will replace more than 30 years of strict race ratios.

In their work so far, officials had assumed the conservative court would strike down efforts to use race in assigning students to schools. School Board attorney Jim Robinson had already drafted the outlines of a memo to that effect. Moments after the ruling, he said he planned to issue the memo today.

In Hillsborough, where a choice plan has caused enrollment at several schools to become predominantly black, officials had been open to taking stronger steps to integrate schools if the high court allowed it. The ruling appears to end those conversations, though Justice Anthony Kennedy left the door open slightly in his concurring opinion. Kennedy said race may be a component of school district plans designed to achieve diversity.

He agreed with Roberts that the plans in Louisville and Seattle went too far. He said, however, that to the extent that Roberts' opinion could be interpreted as foreclosing the use of race in any circumstance, "I disagree with that reasoning."

-- Thomas C. Tobin, Times Staff Writer