This article, “Do You Support Busing?’ is Not the Best Question” gives a nice overview of why the discussion over busing can be a distraction… It is definitely worth a read.
But problematically, the author writes that “Schools are segregated because communities are.”
While that is true, also true is that communities are segregated in order to protect segregation (see: Gardendale as one of a billion examples). See also: Segregated Neighborhoods, Segregated Schools?:
“Evidence of all the links between where people live and how they think about schools have piled up: Research shows that rising income segregation in America since 1990 has been largely driven by the housing choices of parents with children, as higher-income families pursue the neighborhoods that come with the best schools. Another recent study found that the spread of online public school ratings has driven up the price of housing near higher-ranked schools, contributing to the sorting of wealthier and white families into those neighborhoods.”
None of that comes as a surprise to any of us here…
But some good info to keep in mind…
“Research has repeatedly found that communities with more comprehensive school desegregation plans have had faster declines in racial residential segregation than places without such school policies.”
The author ends with something that I think all of us can help with…
[Rather than busing…] “The more relevant question for presidential candidates today is what could — and how they plan to talk to white parents about that.
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