North Carolina Teabaggers resegregate schools

[Verily]

In Britain, such a move would be classified as 'indirect discrimination' (and therefore illegal) if it could be argued that poor students are disproportionally of one race over another.

How does one determine that "indirect discrimination" is actually a result of racism?

There's the same thing in the U.S., albeit usually only applied to employment and voting. Disparate impact. You don't need to actually intend discrimination for it to occur.

[Verily]

Okay, what about the 99% white counties in Western NC and Eastern TN? Are we going to bus people all the way to Memphis from Knoxville? Is that what British law would require?

Don't be silly now. Of course it wouldn't (and, indeed, doesn't).

Then how does diversity get achieved in those areas, since you guys are arguing that the lack of such a plan amounts to unintentional discrimination at the very least?

You don't have to have diverse schools everywhere, just roughly equal education opportunities. If educational opportunities were actually equal in the new system, it wouldn't be discriminatory.

[Verily]

Correlation does not equal causation in this case. There is a third omitted variable which likely causes both poor academic performance and poverty.

Bearing in mind at lower income groups the difference between Asian and White/Black/Hispanic kids is greater than at higher incomes.

Yes, but when you mix students, the poor and minority students are not isolated and instead are exposed to greater educational opportunities. It is unfortunate that this tends to express itself in racial terms because it makes it difficult to articulate. However, a black student at a racially mixed school, with otherwise identical spending, attention, etc., will on average achieve much higher than a black student a predominantly black school, due primarily to exposure to other students from backgrounds valuing education. (This wouldn't apply to a black student with highly educated parents/parents who value education, obviously, but sadly that is not the norm.)