Edwards Statement On Supreme Court Decision On School Diversity Cases

Chapel Hill, North Carolina – Senator John Edwards released the following statement in response to today's decision by the Supreme Court in the Louisville and Seattle school diversity cases:

"Today, right-wing judicial activists have turned Brown v. Board of Education on its head and blocked elected school boards from voluntarily integrating their schools. The decision is a blow to the cause of ensuring that every child has an equal chance to succeed. As someone who grew up in the South, as someone who knows the difference between the brutal segregation of Jim Crow and the decent integration efforts of Louisville and Seattle today, I find the decision deeply saddening.

"But we cannot give up. More than 50 years after the Brown decision, we still have two school systems - one for people who live in the right neighborhoods and one for everyone else. Although this decision makes it harder for us to build one education system for all of our children, still we must do everything in our power to try. I have proposed policies that will help us integrate our schools again -- like a million housing vouchers for working families in poor communities to move into other neighborhoods. In the days and weeks to come, I will talk about others. So should all of us.

"We also should talk about the Supreme Court. Four Justices are prepared, in deed if not in word, to reverse the principles and promise of Brown v. Board of Education. That is what is at stake in this next election. The Supreme Court is on the ballot in this next election, and the American people can stop this radical shift or lock it in for years to come."