Chancellor Richard Carranza has proposed a school integration plan that will desegregate schools. While the idea is goal worthy, the results may not be. It may cause "White Flight" when they only make up 15% of the student population in the public schools as is.
Various studies show that Black and Hispanic students who are bused to integrated schools do better than those who remain in their segregated schools in minority neighborhoods
. These minority students who are bused to integrated schools have lower dropout rates, more likely to go to college, and have better job prospects which allows them to become a positive role model to the next generation family members. So far, all this appears to be positive. However, there are negatives as well.
The most negative is "White flight". When a school district tried to integrate their schools by "forced busing" like the federal government did in the South. White families, rather than allow their children to be bused across the district to lower academic achieving schools, either moved out of the school district, or enrolled them in private or religious schools.. The result was the public schools ended up to consist of high poverty, minority students with reduced political power and consequently, lower school funding.
Moreover, if the school district bused minorities to more White schools, those bused were usually the more academically proficient students, leaving the academically struggling students behind in high poverty and minority segregated schools. The result was that peer pressure of low academic expectations became the rule for those schools and their students.
Finally, by integrating schools it became extremely important to have fully credentialed teachers to sell the unpopular integration plan which resulted in a lower percentage of Black male teachers and less positive adult role models for Black students.
While voluntary busing has a positive outcome for minority students. Forced busing is extremely negative since it causes "White flight", high transportation costs, involuntary school selection, and loss of the middle class in the urban areas. In addition, there is a loss of neighborhood school pride and parent involvement.
Joe Biden is right, federally mandated forced busing was wrong and the negative outweighs the positive. Will the Chancellor's desegregation plan work if there is forced busing across the district? I think not unless he doesn't care about "White flight".