THE WASHINGTON POST, June 22— “Twenty-five years after court-ordered busing tore this city apart, the parents of four white children and a local advocacy group have filed a lawsuit against Boston public schools alleging reverse discrimination and calling for an immediate end to race-based student admissions,” said the Post.

The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court “even as federal courts dismantle school desegregation plans nationwide, and as Boston prepares for the possible demise of its own system with the eventual reintroduction of neighborhood-based schools,” reported the paper.

But that day will come too late for those children recently denied admittance to their preferred classrooms, said attorney Chester Darling.

The mother of one 8-year-old boy assigned to his second-choice school was told by school authorities that he was “not sufficiently Native American” to qualify for his first choice, according to the lawsuit. Another child, also white, was placed on a waiting list. “It's a quota system. It's rigidly enforced and constitutionally impermissible,” Darling said. “You cannot withhold or provide a benefit based on race anymore.”

Boston public schools assign children under a “controlled choice” policy that considers school preference and race, among other factors.

“However, the city has adopted a race-blind admissions policy for its three most celebrated high schools following a successful court challenge last year by a student who claimed she was unfairly denied admission to her top choice because she was white,” said the Post.

Florida Vouchers Are Now Law

REUTERS, June 22—Florida Gov. Jeb Bush signed legislation making the state the first in the nation to offer a statewide program of vouchers to help parents of students in failing schools offset the cost of private education.

Florida's House and Senate approved the controversial plan in April. It fulfills a major campaign promise made by Bush during his run for governor last fall. Opponents, which include the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, have promised lawsuits. They say a provision that would allow parents to transfer children into religious schools violates the Constitution.

The measure assigns grades from A to F to each of Florida's public schools, based on standardized test scores. Schools scoring well would qualify for additional state funding. Students in schools rated “F” for two years out of four would be allowed to transfer to another public school or accept vouchers worth up to $4,000 to help offset private tuition.

“Church-run schools accepting voucher students could continue to teach religious courses, but they could not require students to pray,” reported Reuters.

While Florida has ranked near the bottom historically of states in standardized test scores and education funding, only students in Florida's worst schools would qualify for vouchers.

At present, only four schools in the state would qualify, but officials have said that as many as 169 schools could be added to the list as state educators raise the academic bar.

Remembering the '60s — Accurately

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, June 22—One professor who was around at the time disagrees with Dorothy Gaiter and John Brecher's boast that the “children of the 60s” strive to honor their “proud heritage by keeping an open mind.”

The claim was made in the May 28 Weekend Journal's wine column, and was responded to by Robert Johnson, professor emeritus of English at Washington State University.

“I remember ‘open-minded’ children of the 1960s shutting down my university with a divisive student strike.

“They occupied the administration building and sat on the floors jammed together to prevent employees from leaving their offices,” said Johnson, who was once asked along with the rest of his faculty to keep watch in campus buildings an entire night because of student threats to fire bomb the structures.

“When they disagreed, many children of the '60s tried to prevent others from speaking,” said Johnson. “An occurrence at Yale stands for all: Protesters jammed streets around the law school and thus kept the commanding general in Vietnam from speaking. Is anyone proud of these actions?”