Thread by @1stLevelHuman

It's interesting that school bussing as a means to integrate schools is topical again.

I was a white student bussed to a predominantly Hispanic and black school in the 1970s.

Here's my take.

First of all, it's difficult to remember now how divisive this issue was among whites back then.

Parents who wanted their kids to go to the best schools possible moved to neighborhoods which were not coincidentally all-white, only to be told their kids would be sent across town

Many whites were upset that bussing denied them the opportunity to send their kids to the best schools in the exclusive garden-community suburbs where they lived.

Obviously, minority students living in less desirable neighborhoods lacked that opportunity as well.

This issue really brought out the worst in a lot of people.

I remember seeing on the evening news that somebody shot at a school bus to prevent it from being used to integrate schools.

In my school district somebody put a brick through the windshield of a bus with kids on it.

Keep in mind, most of the whites who opposed bussing in the 70s didn't view bussing's impact upon them in racial terms.

Sure, there were overtly racist nutjobs coming out of the woodwork over the issue, but they weren't representative of most who opposed school bussing.

I'd like opposition to bussing in the 70s to "school choice" proponents today.

Yes, some people are racist and don't want their kids rubbing shoulders with people of color.

And some people are snobs who don't want their kids associating with those of lower social standing.

But most people who support "school choice" do so out of a sincere concern for the quality of their childrens' educations. They don't see the negative impact of "school choice" upon community schools as a problem that their families should have to bear.

This is exactly how it was with most white families who opposed school bussing in the 70s. Most didn't understand why their kids couldn't attend the great school across the street and had to be bussed across town to a marginally performing school instead.

Those families knew that bussing was an attempt to eliminate school segregation, but didn't feel like sacrificing their kids' educations in the furtherance of that worthy goal should have been their burden to bear.

Anyway, I'm not trying to minimize or justify opposition to bussing in the 70s... just grappling to explain, for those who weren't around, how quite a few decent people who weren't particularly racist found themselves vehemently opposed to bussing as a means to desegregation.

That said, here's my experience.

I spent about 45 minutes being bussed both ways, to and from, every single day of the school year.

Minority students who lived near my school spent about 45 minutes both ways being bussed to a school in my neighborhood.

Before bussing, the student body at my school had been about 60% black and 40% Hispanic.

After bussing, the student body at the school I attended was about a third white, a third black, and a third Hispanic.

Here's the funny thing: a school can be desegregated without necessarily being very well integrated.

It's true.

Because some of the highly paid recent graduate white teachers from my neighborhood school were bussed across town, too.

And when classes were divided up among the newly-integrated faculty, the teachers with Master's degrees or advanced certifications-- mostly teachers who lived on my side of town-- were given all of the honors and advanced courses.

It just so happened that the students who met prerequisites for advanced classes or qualified for placement in honors classes were students who also lived on my side of town.

And this meant that after riding to my integrated school on buses with other white kids, I attended classes surrounded by other white kids and taught by white teachers. Except for homeroom, gym, and lunch, my desegregated school was always completely segregated.

So without weighing in on the current political debate, and without endorsing or attacking any current candidates, I feel like there are a couple of important points being missed.

School desegregation was an important goal for this country to embrace, and we still haven't accomplished it all these years later.

Bussing was one plan to accomplish this laudable goal, but many people had legitimate reasons for opposing bussing which were not overtly racist.

And lastly bussing wasn't the magic bullet that its supporters made it out to be. It's possible to desegregate a student body without making it racially integrated. I always felt like bussing was a total failure in my school district because it was poorly implemented.

@threadreaderapp please unroll. 😁