The Secretary of Education has expressed strong support for school diversity and reduction of racial isolation in speeches and in the Joint Guidance on Voluntary School Integration, and the Department of Education (DOE) has included a general preference for school integration among its permissible funding preferences. However, this support for school integration is not yet reflected in the requirements and point systems of many key competitive grant programs, where it might make the most difference. In the long struggle for Congressional agreement on an ESEA (Elementary and Secondary Education Act) reauthorization bill and a collective understanding that the primary achievement goal of No Child Left Behind could not be achieved as originally defined, USDOE has offered states flexibility to commit to their own, federally approved plans in exchange for waivers from 10 ESEA requirements. In terms of flexibility for Highly Qualified Teacher Improvement plans and the principle of Supporting Effective Instruction and Leadership, the flexibility does not exempt states from the ESEA requirement of ensuring that poor and minority children are not taught at higher rates than other students by less desirable teachers. (Contains 51 footnotes.) [Additional research for this paper was provided by Michael Hilton.]