Do you support or oppose using school busing to achieve racial integration? Why?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

?In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Brown v. Board of Education, ruled that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. Although de jure (legal) segregation ended, de facto (actual) segregation remained in many communities with significant proportions of non-Whites. Schools in such communities tend to remain segregated because housing is segregated. To deal with this problem, the Supreme Court ruled that school districts must seek racial balance in schools. In some school districts, busing was used to attain a racial balance. Studies indicate that segregation has been reduced within school districts but has increased between districts. This increase is largely due to "White flight"-that is, Whites leaving the inner cities and moving to suburbs. In some communities, courts have ordered busing between school districts, and some Whites have responded by sending their children to private schools. In many large cities, public schools are approaching 90% minority enrollment.

In 1991, the Supreme Court declared that busing to achieve integration, when ordered, need not continue indefinitely, although the Court did not say precisely how long is enough. The ruling allows communities to end court-ordered busing if they can convince a judge they have done everything "practicable" to eliminate "vestiges of past discrimination" against minorities. In many inner cities, minority students continue to be segregated in dangerous, crowded, and inferior schools.