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One Roslindale street's daily diaspora

The Globe takes a long look at how Boston school busing affects Montvale Street in Roslindale. Complete with map showing where all the kids go.

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Well, it only took the Globe 35 years to wake up to the fact that busing destroys neighborhoods and erodes middle class residency.

Now the bus drivers themselves and their Steelworkers' Union have enough power to keep this sham going.

Restore our alienated rights.

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Maybe it's time to admit that busing in Boston actually increased segregation in Boston's schools. Today only a very few public schools have demographics remotely similar to those of the city as a whole, with around 55% white non-Hispanic. The average public school student now goes to a more segregated school than in the in the sixties and seventies, when busing began, and many go to almost 100% minority schools. The schools are the most segregated places in Boston today.

It is entirely plausible that reversing busing entirely at this point and returning to 100% neighborhood schools would decrease segregation in Boston's schools. Most neighborhoods are more racially integrated than they were in the 60s and 70s, and parents with means would be more likely to choose the BPS if they could be sure of the local school instead of gambling in a lottery, and could send their kids to school with their neighbors' kids. That would inevitably result in less segregated schools.

I'd love to see a minority parent stand up and sue the Boston School District for racial discrimination on the basis that the lottery/busing system indirectly forces their child into a segregated school.

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A return to neighborhood schools right now would mean that some children would have no chance of attending a good school.

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Isn't that just a way of saying that there are poor schools in some neighborhoods now, but the busing system allows people to dismiss the necessity of improving them, by saying that parents who 'really' care will just elect to send their kids elsewhere?

Of course, that double-damns kids who have parents who either don't care or (much more likely) don't understand their options, or who are just flat out unlucky in the assignment process.

Busing was meant to give kids in the system at the time of the decision (aka the 1970s) a chance at one of the better run schools. You know, until the BPS could bring schools throughout the city up to par. The fact that we have the same issue of disparate schools after a third of a century indicates that the ruling, no matter how well-intentioned, has been a failure.

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I think if you look at the quality of facilities, teachers, and administrators, you'll find that all of the elementary schools in the BPS demonstrate a similar level of quality. Funding even follows children now, so schools with a higher degree of poverty, ESL, and special needs get funded more per pupil than other schools. The newest, best elementary facilities in the city are in Roxbury (Orchard Gardens) and Hyde Park (Renaissance Charter). These places are beautiful. Are those the "bad schools" you're talking about? How about the King K-8, in Dorchester? It's newly renovated, it has extra time for math and reading and great MCAS scores. I've been there; it's a nice facility. It's also the only elementary school in the West Zone that made AYP last year. Is that the bad school? Why?

Do you imagine there's some secret conspiracy - not the funding, not the staff, not the facilities - making those schools "bad?"

Why don't you come right out and say it? When people like you say "good school," isn't what you really mean "school where all the kids aren't poor and black?"

Should people from any neighborhood really think their neighbors' kids aren't good enough for their kids to go to school with?

These three schools are all 97-99% non-white already. Do you really think that making parents who live near the Curley stop sending their kids to the Haley is going to have any affect on them at all?

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Sock_Puppet spoke the truth when pointing out the segregation in all the schools resulting from the lottery/busing system. Bring back the neighborhood schools and make them universal throughout the city, I say. And community members and parents in heavily minority sections can lobby the school system to improve their schools if they aren't satisfied. Why should good places like West Roxbury be hit with this diversity crap when it just lowers the quality of their neighborhood schools and fabric of the community? So West Roxbury for example is mostly white - so their schools will be as well. BIG FREAKING DEAL! Everyone get over it and stop hindering the sections of the city that would otherwise thrive if they were allowed to have their own schools back.

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My argument is that the Boston area schools would be less segregated today if busing had never been enacted. They are more segregated today than they were when busing began. Busing (today known as "choice," or the "lottery") continues to cause greater segregation of schools as people with means (who are more likely to be white) continue to leave the city because of their inability to get their children into a local school.

If busing were abolished, it seems probable that Boston area schools would again become less segregated than they are today. Given assurance of their child's assignments, more diverse (in the BPS, anybody who is not black or hispanic should be considered diverse) families with means would stay in the city and enroll their children in BPS. That would reduce segregation and improve school opportunities for all Boston residents.

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They hit the nail on the head here...especially the part of the story where the city acknowledges that their hands are tied. We're being forced as a city to spend 80 million dollars on this crap? And we're still affiliated with Massachusetts why?

What good does this state do for us? Time to cut bait and be our own state. Vermont and Wyoming have similar populations...and they run states just fine. Enough of Massachusetts telling us where kids can and can't go to school. Move their capital to Brookline or wherever (I don't give an expletive), and let's start a new future where we, the intellectual superiors of Boston, decide what's best, not some activist liberal geek judge who doesn't live in Boston and send a child to Boston schools.

And what's up with this "underperforming school" b.s? Two plus two is four. The subject precedes the predicate. Anybody can absorb this information. If the teachers aren't disseminating it well enough, find somebody who can. That's the great thing about a 9% unemployment rate...no need to settle for less.

As for the racial undertones of the matter, I'm not stopping anybody from living where they want to live. If a black person wants to live on my street, I'm not going to burn a cross on my lawn, and I don't know anybody in Boston who would. So what's the problem? If somebody, white or black, wants to live exclusively among people of their race, that's their choice. Plenty of real estate out there. Blacks aren't idiots or space aliens. They can make choices like the rest of us. Stop pandering to them.

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