Forced busing is backwash from the years of the imperious Warren Court. The policy forced parents to pay for their children to be bused long distances to lower-quality schools simply because their children were White. Of course, this is not something the media wants you to know. That's why the press used flowery language and invented cute little terms like "income-based integration plan" that "keeps diversity a factor" to describe forced busing, and make it sound like something other than...well, forced busing.
See for yourself:
from "Board takes final step to drop diversity in assigning students," WRAL-TV5 (Fox News)
Raleigh, N.C. — After several last-ditch efforts to keep diversity a factor in deciding how to assign students to Wake County schools, the Board of Education voted Tuesday to adopt a controversial policy that moves away from the district's longstanding practice of busing.
A crowd of opponents jeered, shouting "Hey, hey. Ho ho. Resegregation has got to go," following the 5-4 vote that means the district will place students in schools based on where they live rather than socioeconomic status.
That, however, is still a long way off. A committee will work over the next 9 to 15 months on how to implement the policy.
Opponents, including the state chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, have promised a legal fight. They argue that such a "racial discriminatory policy" will not only segregate economically disadvantaged students but also keep them from receiving the same quality of education as more advantaged students.
"Do not cause us to be segregated,” parent Jonica Rowland said. (more)
Here is another take:
from "Busing to end in Wake County, N.C. Goodbye, school diversity?," by Stacy Teicher Khadaroo, Christian Science Monitor
The Wake County, N.C., school district has decided to reverse its income-based integration plan, which served as a national model for a decade as school systems sought alternatives to traditional racial-balancing plans.
With protesters shouting in the background, the school board in Raleigh voted 5-to-4 to develop attendance zones closer to students’ homes. Advocates say the new plan will spare children long bus rides, while opponents claim it will lead to racial “resegregation” and more concentrated poverty in certain schools.
The decision is part of a national trend in which school districts are backing off active attempts to bring about diversity, says Gary Orfield, co-director of the Civil Rights Project at the University of California, Los Angeles.
The South had the most racially integrated schools in the nation after the civil rights efforts of the late 1960s, but “it’s going backwards fast now,” Mr. Orfield says.(more)
