Forced busing: How soon we forget

By Kent R. Kroeger (July 2, 2019)

“The road to hell is paved with good intentions”

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1150 a.d.)

The original intent behind federally-mandated desegregation busing was noble: ‘Separate but equal’ was not working for many African-American students in the 1950s and 60s. Busing policies were designed to improve the educational opportunities of African-American children by integrating them systematically into predominantly white school districts.

The desegregation busing concept was predicated upon research conducted in the 1960s, specifically the Coleman Report published in 1966. In that study, including more than 150,000 students, it was found that learning within mixed-race classrooms was more important to the academic achievement of socially disadvantaged African-American children than was per-pupil funding.

According to the researchers, it wasn’t enough to improve funding to schools in economically disadvantaged school districts. The students in these districts would achieve better educational outcomes if they were educated in predominantly white school districts.

But it took the 1971 Supreme Court ruling in Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education to provide the final impetus for desegregation busing to advance nationwide…