Legally Mandated Desegregation

This is a hot-button issue, obviously, and one which is currently being debated by the Supreme Court. I have conflicting opinions. Race is a social construct, not something biological. This is a fact. Discrimination is real, however, and when this discrimination is used to negatively deny people oppurtunities, it is the place of government to ensure that such discrimination not be legal. How can 'racial balance' solve any of the problems in our schools? This skirts the issue, and posits the very difference the legislation is intended to deny. I feel that all racial legislation should be dropped. The job of the government isn't to level the playing feild or make sure that discrimination doesn't happen socially; discrimination (that is the ability to make distinctions between one group and another based on association, affiliation, ethnic origins, religion, etc) is a necessary and inherant componant of social life. It is in the political sphere (which is now unfortunately and possibly irreversabley intertwined with the social and economic spheres) that the body politic function, and it is their job to ensure that such discrimination isn't legally enforced. They cannot, however, force it to happen, just remove legal opstacles keeping oppurtunity unbalanced. For example, if a man wishes to marry another man, or woman a woman, the government should not be able to prevent this, as citizens should have equal rights, and marriage is a private matter.. Such a union is a personal choice and is one which is in the private sphere of one's home and is not the business of the government. (I imagine most of my readers are somewhat in agreement. The government has no place in telling a religious institution to honor said marriage, but again, the legal barrier must be removed.) Now if this occurs, should the government forcably marry gay men and women? In the case of marriage, this make's no real sense, yet with schools, we feel the need to desegregate and racially balance. I am all for desegregation, but it must be based on social and economic factors. We need to address the problems at hand perpetuating the system and these problems are not directly political. Racial segregation is not legal, and hasn't been for half a century, yet we still live in a largely segregated country, despite efforts to desegregate. Why is this? Progress has been made, but the real economic and social problems haven't been adressed. Every school in the state should have the same curriculum, and every student in the state should have the same amount of money spent on them. A federal office should recommend curriculums, but I don't think a country as big as ours, and founded on the principles that our Republic were founded on, should be or would be able to mandate a unified system. But perhaps, if the judiciary wants to get involved in our schools, they should start by funding every school equally. Perhaps it would cost billions of dollars. Maybe 10's of billions. But in a country where NASA gets $17 billion per year, and half our nation budget is designated for military costs (no even including the war in Iraq and Afganistan, which adds to the figure) we can surely find a way. Why is acceptable to bankrupt our country for militarism but not education? This is threatening to turn into a long Joe-rant about everything, so I'll end with a popular paraphrase by Socrates, from Plato's Gorgias; It is better to suffer wrong than to do wrong.