i will write next week about another book i'm reading, about schools in Raleigh, NC. Apparently doing the dastardly thing -- treating class as an identity -- is one reason why there are "no bad schools in Raleigh, NC." michaels is worried worried worried that people are now treating class as an identity, just as they treat race. it is bad bad bad. but apparently, at least if you want to stay bound up within liberalism which is, after all, michaels' goal (welfare liberalism) then it actually works to treat class as an identity -- at least in terms of schooling. thus, his argument for equality of opportunity, which would leave schools segregated in terms of race and class, but would throw money at school to equalize funding is, at least in this instance, a policy that failed. the policy that succeeded, treated class as another criteria of diversity.
shag
^^^^^^^^
CB: Now I get where you are coming from on class as identity. Cool.
When we had the Black Action Movement strike that shut down the University of Michigan demanding increased Black enrollment ( the strike could not succeed without White student support , since the student body was overwhelmingly majority White, obviously), I remember proposing affirmative action for low incomed Whites and all low-incomed people , i.e. your class identity , no ?
In the San Antonio School Distrtict case, the Surpreme Court was one vote short of making poverty/low income a suspect classification, which if you are familiar with civil rights law, you will see as one vote short of a "revolution" concerning class as an identity.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Antonio_Independent_School_District_v._Rodriguez
San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez
Supreme Court of the United States Argued October 12, 1972 Decided March 21, 1973 Full case name San Antonio Independent School District, et al. v. Demetrio P. Rodriguez, et al. Citations 411 U.S. 1 (more) 93 S. Ct. 1278; 36 L. Ed. 2d 16; 1973 U.S. LEXIS 91 Prior history Judgment for plaintiffs, 337 F. Supp. 280 (W.D. Texas (1971) Subsequent history Rehearing denied, 411 U.S. 959 (1973) Holding Reliance on property taxes to fund public schools does not violate the Equal Protection Clause even if it causes inter-district expenditure disparities. Absolute equality of education funding is not required and a state system that encourages local control over schools bears a rational relationship to a legitimate state interest. District Court of Texas reversed. Court membership Chief Justice Warren E. Burger
Associate Justices William O. Douglas · William J. Brennan, Jr. Potter Stewart · Byron White Thurgood Marshall · Harry Blackmun Lewis F. Powell, Jr. · William Rehnquist
Case opinions Majority Powell, joined by Burger, Stewart, Rehnquist, Blackmun Dissent White, joined by Douglas, Brennan Dissent Marshall, joined by Douglas Dissent Brennan Laws applied U.S. Const. amend. XIV San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez, 411 U.S. 1 (1973)[1], was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States reversed a Texas three-judge District Court.
The Supreme Court's decision held that a school-financing system based on local property taxes was not an unconstitutional violation of the Fourteenth Amendment's equal protection clause. The majority opinion stated that the appellees did not sufficiently prove that education is a fundamental right or that the financing system was subject to strict scrutiny.
The District Court had decided that education is a fundamental right and that the financing system was subject to strict scrutiny.