Boston School Committee ends race-based student assignment.

The committee votes by a 5-2 margin to remove race as a factor in assigning students to schools. The move is prompted by a lawsuit by four white parents and a group called Boston’s Children First, filed on July 21, 1999, that charges the continued use of race in the assignment process was unconstitutional. Despite the change, the committee continues to employ the lottery system to assign students rather than return to assignment them to the their neighborhood schools because of concerns that not all schools are of equal quality.