Democratic Primaries
In reply to the discussion: The busing issue is based on one unavoidable fact. [View all]GulfCoast66
(11,949 posts)When you say the school they were assigned to you leave so much unsaid. Until that time, since the beginning of public education, elementary schools were neighborhood schools. Even proponents of integration, meaning eliminating legally enforced segregation as it was in my state till Brown, did not want to see their 6 year old walk 10 minutes to the neighborhood school, then twice in their elementary school years be put on a bus and driven 20 minutes to a school across the city they knew few people at. So many of them put their elementary school kids in private schools. But, and this is important, when the kids hit 7th grade we had a big influx of kids joining the public school system. Into fully integrated schools. Our city was small enough that the much larger Jr. High Schools could be integrated by drawing school zone lines appropriately. So these kids went from private schools with little or no diversity to public schools with an African American percentage of around 30%. And they happily attended. Were there some who went their whole career in private school? Yes, but far from a majority. A small minority and many of those were in integrated Catholic schools. Ironically, bussing older kids would not have been as opposed as they had older and more stable peer groups. But was not needed.
As we all know, the problem was housing policies which still plague some areas today. Had the courts rather insured all schools were funded equally and really cracked down on housing practices the result would have been better. The school I was bussed to, which had been a Black only school was a train wreck. The older boys were rewarded for good behavior with being allowed to take the rats and mice caught each night to the dumpster. Had the money spent on all those busses been forced into improving the schools it would have been money well spent.
Today I live in a middle/upper middle class neighborhood. It has been integrated since it was built in the 90s so it really is not an issue here.
And again I want to emphasize and admit. My experience is with one medium sized Southern City. Im know it does not reflect the universal experience. Hell, there were districts in rural Louisiana Parishes that created private schools which pretty much acted as public schools. For whites, that is.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden