FACTOID # 177: 61.5% of Swedes work more than 40 hours per week, but just across the border in Norway only 15.8% of people work this long.
 
 Home   Encyclopedia   Statistics   Countries A-Z   Flags   Maps   Education   Forum   FAQ   About 
 
 
 
WHAT'S NEW
RECENT ARTICLES
More Recent Articles »
 

SEARCH ALL

FACTS & STATISTICS    Advanced view

Search encyclopedia, statistics and forums:

 

 

(* = Graphable)

 

 


Encyclopedia > Forced busing

Forced busing is the concept of achieving racial or economic integration in United States public schools by transporting schoolchildren to schools outside their area of residence. In the early 1970s, many state assemblies and appeals courts mandated the racial integration of school districts within individual cities, often requiring the racial composition of each individual school in the district to reflect the composition of the district as a whole. This was generally achieved by transporting children by school bus to a school in a different area of the district. The "forced" adjective describes how the mandates generally came from the state government or courts and were often opposed by city residents and local government. Forced busing was used mainly in large, ethnically segregated school systems, including Boston, Massachusetts, Cleveland, Ohio, Pasadena, California, Richmond, Virginia, San Francisco, California and Wilmington, Delaware. Proponents of the plans argued that with the schools integrated, minority students would have equal access to equipment, facilities and resources that the cities white students had, thus giving all students in the city equal educational opportunities. Nickname: Beantown, The Hub (of the Universe), Athens of America Location in Massachusetts Founded  -Incorporated  September 17, 1630  1820, as a city County  Suffolk County Mayor  Thomas Menino (Dem) Area  - Total  - Water  232. ... City nickname: The Forest City Location in Cuyahoga County, Ohio County Cuyahoga Mayor Jane Campbell Area   â€“Land   â€“Water 213. ... Pasadena is a city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. ... Downtown Richmond as seen from the James River Motto: Sic Itur Ad Astra (Such is the way to the Stars) Nickname: River City Location in Virginia Founded  -Incorporated  1607   County  Independent city Mayor  Douglas Wilder Area  - Total  - Water  162. ... The downtown San Francisco skyline, looking east from the central part of the city. ... Location in Delaware Founded  -Incorporated  {{{incorporated}}} County New Castle County Mayor James M. Baker (Dem) Area  - Total  - Water 44. ...

Contents


Criticism

The most controversial aspects of most policies involved busing children to schools in dangerous neighborhoods or previously integrated schools, or busing them from integrated schools to partially-integrated ones. Opponents claimed busing compromised the quality of the students' education. Declining property values due to white flight further decreased the quality of the educational systems. Most forced busing programs met with persistent complaints from parents of all races due to the long rides, hardships with transportation for extra-curricular activities, and separation of siblings when elementary schools at opposite sides of the city were "paired," (i.e. splitting lower and upper elementary grades into separate schools).


Effects of Busing

Busing and desegregation orders have in many cases led to white flight into suburb school districts or private. As many forced busing programs only required integration of schools within a particular city, forced busing led to a decline in the population of many large cities (especially those with large African-American populations) and helped fuel the rise of suburbs, which were largely immune to forced busing due to their smaller size and ethnic homogeneity. Rust Belt cities in particular experienced the largest population declines, with declines of fifty percent or more between 1950 and 2000 in Detroit, Michigan, Cleveland, Ohio, and Buffalo, New York. It should be noted that these cities were already experiencing population declines before forced busing came into effect, but that busing increased the rate of decline. In Boston and California, where land values are higher and property tax structures less favorable to relocation, it is more common for parents to enroll their children in private or parochial schools. Desegregation is the process of ending racial segregation, most commonly used in reference to the United States. ... White flight is a colloquial term for the demographic trend of upper and middle class American Whites moving away from (predominantly non-white) inner cities, finding new homes in nearby suburbs or even moving to new locales entirely, e. ... Illustration of the backyards of a surburban neighbourhood Suburbs are inhabited districts located either on the outer rim of a city or outside the official limits of a city (the term varies from country to country), or the outer elements of a conurbation. ... African Americans, also known as Afro-Americans, Black Americans, or simply blacks, are an ethnic group in the United States of America whose ancestors, usually in predominant part, were indigenous to West and sub-Saharan Africa. ... Illustration of the backyards of a surburban neighbourhood Suburbs are inhabited districts located either on the outer rim of a city or outside the official limits of a city (the term varies from country to country), or the outer elements of a conurbation. ... The Rust Belt, highlighted in red The Rust Belt, also known as the Manufacturing Belt, is an area in the northeastern and north-central United States whose economy was formerly based largely on heavy industry, manufacturing, and associated industries. ... Motto: Speramus Meliora; Resurget Cineribus (We Hope For Better Things; It Shall Rise From the Ashes - this motto was adopted after the disastrous 1805 fire that devastated the territorial city) Nickname: The Motor City and Motown Location in Michigan Founded  -Incorporated  July 24, 1701  1816 County  Wayne County Mayor  Kwame... City nickname: The Forest City Location in Cuyahoga County, Ohio County Cuyahoga Mayor Jane Campbell Area   â€“Land   â€“Water 213. ... Aerial view of downtown Buffalo, New York Buffalo, also known as The Queen City, and the City of Good Neighbors, is an American city in western New York. ... Nickname: Beantown, The Hub (of the Universe), Athens of America Location in Massachusetts Founded  -Incorporated  September 17, 1630  1820, as a city County  Suffolk County Mayor  Thomas Menino (Dem) Area  - Total  - Water  232. ... State nickname: The Golden State Other U.S. States Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) Official languages English Area 410,000 km² (3rd)  - Land 404,298 km²  - Water 20,047 km² (4. ... A parochial school is a type of private school which engages in religious education in addition to conventional education. ...


Historical Examples

Boston

In the Boston metropolitan area, the term "forced busing" is primarily used by critics of a remedy prescribed by Massachusetts US District Court Judge Arthur Garrity for perceived racial inequities in Boston public schools in a 1974 ruling. Garrity's ruling applied a state law, called the Racial Imbalance Law, that had been passed by the Massachusetts state legislature a few years earlier, requiring any school with a student enrollment of more than fifty percent "non-white" to be balanced according to race. The ruling ordered schoolchildren to be transported (presumably by bus, hence the term) to schools in different neighborhoods, in order to eliminate the racial segregation that had come about. State nickname: Bay State Other U.S. States Capital Boston Largest city Boston Governor Mitt Romney (R) Official languages English Area 27,360 km² (44th)  - Land 20,317 km²  - Water 7,043 km² (25. ... Nickname: Beantown, The Hub (of the Universe), Athens of America Location in Massachusetts Founded  -Incorporated  September 17, 1630  1820, as a city County  Suffolk County Mayor  Thomas Menino (Dem) Area  - Total  - Water  232. ... The term public school has different meanings: In England and Wales, one of a small number of prestigious historic schools open to the public which normally charge fees and are financed by bodies other than the state, commonly as private charitable trusts; here the word public is used much as... 1974 is a common year starting on Tuesday (click on link for calendar). ... State nickname: Bay State Other U.S. States Capital Boston Largest city Boston Governor Mitt Romney (R) Official languages English Area 27,360 km² (44th)  - Land 20,317 km²  - Water 7,043 km² (25. ... Segregation means separation. ...


The conflict in Boston over busing primarily affected West Roxbury, Roslindale, Hyde Park, Charlestown, Dorchester, the North End, and South Boston (the latter being traditionally Irish-American but also having a sizable Polish/Lithuanian community). It also affected the mostly black community of Roxbury. To a lesser extent, schools in Springfield, Massachusetts were also affected by Judge Garrity's order, but the plan caused little overt controversy there. ... Hyde Park is the most southern neighborhood of the City of Boston, Massachusetts. ... Birdseye view of Boston, Charlestown, Massachusetts and Bunker Hill between 1890 and 1910. ... Dorchester is the largest neighborhood within the City of Boston located within Suffolk County, Massachusetts. ... Categories: Stub | Boston neighborhoods ... South Boston is a heavily populated neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts, located south of the Fort Point Channel and abutting Dorchester Bay. ... Nickname: City of Homes Location in Massachusetts Founded  -Incorporated  May 14, 1636   County  Hampden County Mayor  Charles Ryan (Dem) Area  - Total  - Water  86. ...


The State Board of Education took a differing view, agreeing with the Boston School Committee, chaired by Louise Day Hicks, that if any segregation did exist, it was residential, i.e., caused by families' housing choices, and not planned.


The integration plan aroused fierce criticism amongst many Boston residents. Opponents personally attacked Judge Garrity for hypocrisy. Garrity lived in a white suburb, thus, his own children would not have been affected by his ruling.


Today the Boston Public Schools are eighty-six percent African American and Hispanic. According to the 2000 census, Bostons white population is 54.48 percent, whereas Boston's black and Hispanic populations together total 39.77 percent. It seems most white parents prefer to send their children to private and porochial schools as opposed to the intergrated public schools. Boston's South Boston High school (now the South Boston High complex) was declared "dysfunctional" by the State Board of Education. African Americans, also known as Afro-Americans or black Americans, are an ethnic group in the United States of America whose ancestors, usually in predominant part, were indigenous to Sub-Saharan and West Africa. ... Hispanic, as used in the United States, is one of several terms used to categorize U.S. immigrants for whose background hail either from Spain, the Spanish-speaking countries of Latin America or the original settlers of the traditionally Spanish-held Southwestern United States. ... A census is the process of obtaining information about every member of a population (not necessarily a human population). ...


Pasadena

In 1970 a federal court ordered the desegregation of the public schools in Pasadena, California. At that time, the proportion of white students in those schools reflected the proportion of whites in the community, 54 percent and 53 percent, respectively. After the desegregation process began, large numbers of whites in the upper and middle classes who could afford it pulled their children from the public schools and placed them into private schools instead of their intergrated school system. As a result, by 2004 Pasadena was home to sixty-three private schools, which educated one-third of all school-aged children in the city, and the proportion of white students in the public schools had fallen to 16 percent. The superintendent of Pasadena's public schools characterized them as being to whites "like the bogey-man," and mounted policy changes, including a curtailment of busing, and a publicity drive to induce affluent whites to put their children back into the public schools. 1970 was a common year starting on Thursday. ... The United States district courts are the general trial courts of the United States federal court system. ... Pasadena is a city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. ... 2004 is a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...


San Francisco

San Francisco, California also compels children to attend schools outside their own neighborhoods in order to promote racial diversity; however, in San Francisco the practice's most vocal opponents are not whites, but rather Asians, particularly Chinese-Americans, who have been the group most affected by the city's plan. This article is about the city in California. ... The term Asian can refer to something or someone from Asia. ...


Elimination and Aftermath

In an effort to satisfy parents concerned with mandated long bus rides, many districts later modified their pupil placement plans to provide attractive programs in "magnet schools", built new school buildings and reconfigured older buildings to logistically develop more favorable attendance plans which met desegregation goals. Combined with changes in housing patterns, forced busing programs were gradually eliminated during the 1990s as the courts nationwide released districts from orders under old lawsuits. The population of most cities affected by forced busing continues to decline and many anchor cities are now the poorest city in their respective metropolitan area. Busing continues in the Boston area under the rubric of Controlled Choice, allowing any student to go to a school outside his or her own neighborhood as long as the move is conducive to achieving racial balance. In the U.S. system of education, a magnet school is a public school that draws students interested in specific subjects such as academics or the arts from the surrounding region (typically a school district or a county). ... // Events and trends The 1990s are generally classified as having moved slightly away from the more conservative 1980s, but keeping the same mind-set. ... A metropolitan area is a large population center consisting of a large city and its adjacent zone of influence, or of several neighboring cities or towns and adjoining areas, with one or more large cities serving as its hub or hubs. ...


See also

A new 1973 Wayne Lifeguard school bus won in national contest for safety ideas is presented to winning driver from Goochland County Public Schools by Wayne dealer Jeff Davis at Virginia State Capitol A school bus is a specially built, painted and equipped bus used to transport students to and...

External Links

  • http://videoindex.pbs.org/program/all_chapters.jsp?item_id=5853

  Results from FactBites:
 
<html> (1407 words)
During busing, a Seattle school was considered to be desegregated if it was within 10 percent of the district's minority-white ratio, which is now 59 percent minority and 41 percent white.
Unlike most other school districts across the nation, Seattle implemented forced busing without being ordered to do so by the courts in the wake of the landmark Brown vs. Board of Education ruling that "separate but equal" education was unconstitutional.
Busing was not popular among the city's residents, who made their positions known at the ballot box and in surveys.
Desegregation busing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (1498 words)
Desegregation busing, also known as forced busing, is the concept of achieving racial or economic integration in United States public schools by transporting schoolchildren to schools outside their area of residence.
As many forced busing programs only required integration of schools within a particular city, forced busing led to a decline in the population of many large cities (especially those with large African-American populations) and helped fuel the rise of suburbs, which were largely immune to forced busing due to their smaller size and ethnic homogeneity.
The population of most cities affected by forced busing continues to decline and many anchor cities are now one of the poorest cities in their respective metropolitan area.
  More results at FactBites »


 
 

COMMENTARY     


Share your thoughts, questions and commentary here
Your name
Your comments

Want to know more?
Search encyclopedia, statistics and forums:

 


Lesson Plans | Student Area | Student FAQ | Reviews | Press Releases |  Feeds | Contact
The Wikipedia article included on this page is licensed under the GFDL.
Images may be subject to relevant owners' copyright.
All other elements are (c) copyright NationMaster.com 2003-5. All Rights Reserved.
Usage implies agreement with terms, 0825, t