As our editorial Thursday argued, Wichita public school officials have found a fair, commonsense way to end forced busing. The proposal outlined Tuesday by superintendent Winston Brooks achieves two main objectives: Every student gets to attend a quality neighborhood school, and families whose children are now bused for integration may continue to choose that school option.
Many details remain to be ironed out. In its broad outlines, however, this proposal is a good-faith effort to end busing in a way that expands choices for families, strengthens neighborhoods and enhances the image of Wichita schools.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
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22 Comments
Not to be a smart ass or a “faux green” — but the fuel we waste, nationwide, busing kids around is ridiculous, isn’t it.
What has changed, since the courts ordered busing in Brown vs Topeka BOE?
For starters, the races are not nearly as segregated as they used to be, geographically.
Even if you think court ordered busing was a good idea, at the time, its time has passed.
I understand that Wichita put its busing plan in place without a court order, attempting to avoid court mandates. There might be a “consent decree” or a negotiated document, somewhere, I forget the history.
That will be great, if USD 259 can implement the plan without court consent.
There was never anything ‘fair’ about forced busing. Just more heavy handed ’solutions’ from the nanny system.
An interesting study would be to see the results of such practices. Did the blacks who were bused to ‘better’ government schools do better in life? Did the whites who lost the lottery do worse? I would think that there was no real effect on the life outcome with forced busing. As is readily obvious, the home environment has a far greater impact than the school.
Within 5 years, Wichita will be back to almost totally segregated schools and the schools in the black part of town will lag way behind those in the white areas. It is almost as sure as the sun rises in the ast and sets in the west. Bussing is good for all the students. Integration benefits white and black students. Black students especially benefit as study after study has shown that black children who attend integrated schools do better in school, are less likely to drop out and more likely to go to college. If they do not wish to bus the black children, at least maintain a policy that will allow their parents to select an out of district school if they so desire.
I totally agree Kev. I think the fallout from this will be enormous. Perhaps then we’ll learn. But probably not.
Not to cast a bad light on what some posters have said, but I think the mindset is all wrong.
The Black Community in Wichita is more capable than you think. There are some extremely capable administrators and teachers who happen to be Black. There are Black community leaders who are so impressive when you take the time to talk to them.
Sorry, but I feel embarrassed when I hear talk like this that Black people are somehow helpless and can’t manage affairs like education.
I don’t know what to say other than people need to get their 1960s and 1970s mindset away from this problem.
I do agree with doing away with the busing. I think our communities in Wichita, regardless of race are the finest in the country.
Wichita has come of age, it’s time to show the country that we can do it right.
You mean all these years and now everything is hunky dory. Or does it mean the district is paying too much in fuel and maintenance costs that they need to come up with some type of spin to cut costs. And, who are they going to pay off so they get approved for this and not get sued. Follow the money.
I don’t think we can solve the problems in society through the schools..all the good intentions and social programs won’t really help a child if his/her family is nonexistant or out of control. We need to address the problem of why any particular school is failing in the first place, and that usually lies directly with the family and lack of parental involvement in the child’s education. The government makes for a bad stepparent..kids need their parents to be good, strong role models if they’re going to succeed in life..that’s something that no school or government program can give them. We should really focus on bulding strong families if we want kids to succeed, and the first intervention is encouraging people to put off becoming a parent until they’re ready.When over 75% of black children are born to single parent families, the children are set up for poverty and failure from the get go.
Back to the main topic for a moment. I still raise the question of the appropriateness of discussing the proposal to end busing without the agreement of OCR that the current busing program may be terminated. While the current busing program is not “court mandated”, I believe the same arose from litigation filed in the late 1960s (I wasn’t here then, so if I’m off, please correct), and the settlement of the litigation was the consent agreement (I don’t think it was a consent decree) with the predecessor to OCR.
There are some distinctions between the current busing program in 259 and those found unconstitutional by SCOTUS last term (the Seattle and Louisville attendance programs). Perhaps the most important distinction, as I recall the opinion, is that unlike the Seattle and Louisville attendance programs which dealt with eligibility for enrollment in schools based upon use of “race” as a factor in assignment decisions, the Wichita busing plan is a remedial one, that is, designed to overcome the de jure segregation of the schools based upon race. Of course, at the time, this was a “black/white” issue, as the current demographics of 259 did not then exist, and there had not been, to my understanding, any segregation of the schools based upon a student being of Hispanic, Asian, etc., ethnicity.
Back to my main point, the creation and discussion of a post-busing attendance plan before OCR has agreed to release Wichita from the agreement; I believe the same to be premature, and if OCR does not agree to release 259 from the current agreement, there will be a great deal of negative reaction directed to 259.
I recognize the need for contingency planning for the potential for release from the current agreement; I just think it is premature to announce the same and hold public meetings thereon before OCR’s acquiescence is known.
Bussing was always a poor solution to an unfixable problem: How do undo years of segregation, much of it legally enforced.
I wish I had an answer; I don’t. But it’s clear that bussing, at this point, is not the answer.
Thank you, GMC, for stating that which I forgot in my post earlier. Busing to achieve desegregation and correct the perceived ills created by segregation, at this point, is clearly not the answer, if it ever was. I think busing became the “solution” in the years following Brown when the courts became frustrated by foot dragging (by schools both North and South) in compliance with the mandate.
I’ve no answer, either.
BTW, to touch on another point raised above, should the busing program in 259 be eliminated, there won’t be any great saving of transportation dollars. The “forced busing” represents a small part of the total number of students bused for various reasons in 259. Any savings will not then be available for general use, either, as transportation funds are not in the same fund as the general fund, which is the source of salaries, etc.
VT -
I’m gonna parce words, because that’s what we do.
We agree, with the exception of one word, and I hope (and believe) that you don’t mean what it appears (to me) to mean. I also agree that bussing was latch onto as the “solution” to an intractable problem, because it seemed the only tool available, especially in light of the massive resistance to desegretation in much of the South.
But:
Segregation did not create “perceived” ills. It created, and continued, very real ones, and ills we deal with to this day and will be for some time. The continuation of slavery through Jim Crow and the legal justification that was supplied for it is one of the greatest crimes, and greatest shames, of this nation. And we’re still paying the price.
GMC, thank you. I originally began going in another direction, and did not strike “perceived” when I was editing to reflect my thinking. The ills created by segregation were/are very real, and as you so correctly state, we are continuing to pay the price thereof.
My defense: I’ve contracted a very nasty virus, and my brain has the working capacity of a bale of cotton.
Again, thank you for pointing that out to me.
Who cares about what the OCR thinks.VT, did you ever think that OCR has double standards in regards to civil rights?
Think about this, some of the population chosen to be segregated in the first place and we still do this today.In other words, it is my civil right to be segregated from the rest of population by race.
A word must be said, in defense of the South:
Some of the most violent protests, against court mandated busing, were in Boston and other NORTHERN cities.
Wiseman, why what the OCR thinks is important is that it is the successor agency to the division of the DOJ, IIRC, with whom the district made the agreement. Yes, there is de facto segregation resulting from housing patterns; I’m not oblivious to this, and would not pretend to say the government, at any level, should be able to tell folks where to live. However, when the de facto segregation becomes de jure through “state action”, it is violative of the Constitution, particularly the Fourteenth Amendment.
The Wichita school district had de jure segregation of schools at the elementary and junior high school levels. I do not recall that there were segregated high schools in the district. The litigation that was filed which resulted in the consent agreement was the result of this. The busing plan adopted as a part of the consent agreement was to remedy the effects of past de jure segregation. As GMC and I have both commented, this was a not too good attempt to resolve these issues.
If we desire truly racially integrated schools, reflective of the “diverse” makeup of the district, there should be one elementary school; one middle school; and one high school, all located in a central location, to which all students are transported daily. I don’t want this, but if desegregation of schools otherwise racially segregated is to be accomplished, this is the only way it may happen.
BTW, the existence of the consent agreement which is remedial of past segregation is the distinction with a difference between Wichita and Seattle and Louisville which I’ve previously discussed in a prior post. This is another reason why OCR’s participation is necessary, IMO. If the district was to proceed without OCR’s involvement, I think litigation by OCR against the district would be a given. I speculate that even with OCR’s involvement and even with its acquiesence, there will be litigation filed by private citizens, alleging that the effects of past segregation have not been remedied, and the busing plan should continue.
Wiseman:
If your post means what it implies, yes, indeed it is your right. You have the right to be a fool, and are poorer for it.
If I mis-read your post, I’ll apologize in advance.
And yes, econ101, there were protests against busing in the North. While there was resistance to implimentation of Brown in many places, few resisted like much of the old south. In one county in Virginia, for example, they shut the public schools down rather than integrate, and created instead private, all-white schools.
And as I noted in another thread, a cry of “they did it too” is not only not an excuse, it is an admission.
GMC70, two of my neighbors are Mexicans, three neighbors are Black, one is Asian, and the rest of us are what looks to be White.No your apology is not acceptable; you express too quickly a judgment of character.
There is one thing for sure, financial class determent racial segregation and cultural beliefs.If that is not true then why do we have private schools?
Paul – we largely agree. I wish we had decent transit – that would allow students to use that as transportation to magnet schools based on specialization rather than race. Then, maybe, just maybe, we could focus on educational excellence.
I think bussing was needed at one time; however I think it has out-lived its usefulness.
I could live with an end to busing.BUT it has been an absolute positive as to breaking down segregation.
Surveys would need to be taken to determine if the schools are now integrated enough by where the students live. We don’t want to lose 40 years of hard won progress.
HeyI just realized that it is spelled bussinng, not busing.I copied the Eagle, Randy no les.Dang, a spelling-challenged guy like me has to trust somebody — it will be Websters or spell-check, from now on, not Randy!
“As our editorial Thursday argued, Wichita public school officials have found a fair, commonsense way to end forced busing.” SIC
GMC70, two of my neighbors are Mexicans, three neighbors are Black, one is Asian, and the rest of us are what looks to be White.No your apology is not acceptable; you express too quickly a judgment of character.
There is one thing for sure, financial class determent racial segregation and cultural beliefs.If that is not true then why do we have private schools?
Posted by: Wiseman | December 21, 2007 at 06:20 PM
—
With due respect, sir, it appears I did not misread your post at all.
Yes, financial class is a part of the segregation of neighborhoods. But only a part. It’s far more complex than that, and a major part of that complexity is the history of legally enforced segregation, which reinforced and justified the blatent racism which forced minorities into segrated neighborhoods. While the legal racism may be gone, the neighborhood patterns remain, and tend to continue either by social inertia or a legacy of soft racism, often wrapped in the kind of blind self-satisfaction you’ve reflected.
Yes, I’m being harsh. But it’s past time that many understand it’s not enough to simply declare “we’re not racist anymore” and make everything hunky-dory. The segregated neighborhoods are the legacy of generations of open, and often legally supported or even enforce, segregation.
Legally enforced racism – or worse – was the rule in this country from well before its founding until at least the 1970s. It won’t be all good in just a single generation. While I do not hold a single person today responsible for the sins of their fathers, it is our responsibility to do what we can to correct the legacy of the sins of our fathers.
Unfortunately, I don’t know if I have a workable answer to the segregated schools problem. There isn’t one until we desegregate the neighborhoods that the schools are in. And those patterns are damn hard to break, for lots of reasons, only partly financial.