Seattle Parent to Supreme Court: Make My Daughter a Beaver!

We wouldn't think that failing to get your daughter into Ballard High School would be so disappointing that you'd take it all the way to the Supreme Court. After all, who wants their daughter to be a Beaver for life?

But there's no accounting for some people, like Kathleen Brose, president of Parents Involved in Community Schools (PICS). She--well, her lawyers--argue that a racial tiebreaker kept her daughter out of Ballard High, a historic and effective institution of learning that's produced such intellectual luminaries as this one guy my mom worked with at Group Health.

Gina Holland of Associated Press explains the system so we don't have to:

Under the district's plan, the first tiebreaker was whether an applicant has a sibling already at the school. The second tiebreaker was race: which applicant would bring the high school closer to the districtwide ratio of whites to nonwhites, roughly 40 percent to 60 percent. The third tiebreaker was distance, with closer students getting preference.

Brose--well, her lawyers--have pushed the case all the way up to the Supreme Court, which announced today that it will hear it, along with a similar case from Kentucky.

Probably the court will rule in favor of affirmative action. After all, they upheld it just three years ago, in 5-4 decision written by Sandra Day O'Connor. Surely Justice O'Connor will write another balanced decision ... oh wait.