School Busing programs

I don't know if they still do this. From I gather the busing trend largely died out in the latter 70s. But do you think it's a good idea to bus suburban kids and inner city kids into each others districts to expose them to "diversity?" Taking it a step further, would you be in favor of YOUR kids being bused into the opposite zone?

This topic is hot around here right now. There is great need for another high school, but it isn't passing with voters because the proposed plan includes integration of communities. A task force was assigned the duty to redefine districts to promote diversity. And people in this conservative area will never go for that.

So, I don't know how it will end. I thought for sure that once my son reached high school a new one would already be built. Now, he is in sixth, and he won't ever see a new high school.

I will be 100% honest. I am against the restructuring of district boundaries. The elementary school in my suburb is part of the big city district. Our elementary is one of the "best", with "best" meaning cleanest, most progressive and due to more wealthy people living in the zone, fund raising for anything, items both practical and vain, is never difficult. Plus, we attract teachers with the best resumes because out of the entire district, it is a great school to teach at. A teacher does not have to deal with issues that inner city teachers deal with. All that said, it may sound snooty, but property taxes here are much higher than those in any other zone.

So, I don't agree with some of "our" kids being separated when they leave middle school for high school. Why should my son possibly go to the inner city school when his best friend three blocks down gets to go to a newly built school? Granted, now, all of this is a moot point for me on a personal level, as it will never be built in my son's time in the district. Still, I will continue to vote it down as long as it includes bussing.

It works the same for inner city parents. Why should one kid be afforded the opportunity to go to the new high school when his friend a block over gets the old one? Not fair.

Our district does allow for school choice, so a parent can have their child in a better school if they provide transportation. So, that fact makes things more fair, in my opinion.

I think the whole idea is outdated. It was one thing to do this in 1974....when the world was still experiencing tremors from the civil rights movement, and Black and White society were both still very isolated from each other....but in 2010 I question if there's as much of a dire need to expose kids to how the "other side" lives as back then.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desegregation_busing_in_the_United_States

According to the article, the practice is no longer mandatory. Like Marc said, I think we've evolved just enough as a society that I don't feel this sort of thing is necessary anymore. Not to say that I don't think suburban and inner city kids should be exposed to each other, but I don't think it needs to be heavy handed at this point.

Bussing is a thing of the past and it was a great inconvenience for kids who wasted so much time going so far.

Even in big districts like Miami-Dade County, there was a form of busing in the '80s when our daughter was in high school. We lived in Miami at the time and she would have gone to a dreadful inner-city school where she would have mostly learned how to survive in a ghetto. Being white, I would have been targeted in that neighborhood.

Because she was black she had the option to go to Miami Beach High School, right across the bay from where we lived - and that is where she went. It was a much better location - and because so many inner city kids opted for it I think the school demographic was mostly black.

No and No. I think it's dumb. Forcing "diversity" is the surest way to ensure animosity continues. I don't think it was or is effective. Busing just seems dumb to me, and IMO, I think it's kind of racist in it of itself.

Of course, I think most public schools suck anyway.

I was never fond of the whole 'busing' concept; it was too deliberate and naive. I would imagine that the all of the kids (those bused in from other districts, as well as those who remained at their home base and saw it) probably resented the upheaval/influx, and that it undoubtedly created hostility in the halls. In the 70s, there was a lot of controversy over this, and incidents surrounding this mandate regularly made the news.

When I was a kid, the elementary/middle school I attended was partnered up with this local 'educational center.' The place was set up for dropout adults to continue their education, but at the same time it also hosted different elementary/middle schools that would be bused in twice a week for mainly non-primary subjects (Music, P.E., Art...and I think science too, I can't recall.) Every day after school, it would also host additional 'courses,' and the kids who attended the various schools that went there could register for these classes–basically it was a course-based latch-key program. When the regular school day over, the bus would pick the kids up at their school and take them over. At around five or six o'clock, their parents would pick them up from there. Unlike during the school day, when the different schools would go there for its assigned classes (and be segregated to their school and grade only) the kids from the various school would mix it up in the different classes.

I think that was a more effective program than busing. It allowed kids from different school to fraternize and get used to being around kids who weren't from theirs. It was also voluntary, but so many kids (whose parents worked, and so this was a good latchkey set up) attended that it made others want to too. I would completely in favor of my daughter being involved with something that, but I'm not at all interested in her being bused into an area far outside her zone for primary school.

Where I live, we have a busing program but it's not so much about taking kids from one district to another, as getting them to school from where they live. Schools where I live aren't as seperated, I guess, in that kids are all mixed up. We have a few schools with a pretty rough reputation - two middle schools I would never send my child too and a couple of elementary schools, but most schools aren't divided along the lines that I see people mentioning here.