1956
The column this month is turned over to Tom Knott, who at our invitation has written the following entitled "Busing—the Phantom Issue of Integration."
DEAR CLASSMATES:
In an emotional issue such as school busing it is quite difficult to remain objective in one's evaluations. However, in order to lend a little credence to my remarks, allow me to mention the following: we have three school-age children Lisa, age 12, attends a private girls' school Susie, age 10 (5th grade), and Larry, age 9 (4th grade), are bused to Diamond Heights Elementary School. Two neighbors and good friends of ours are the recently retired president of the Board of Education and the current president of the Board of Supervisors (city council). I make these observations only to demonstrate the point that we may have a better idea of the "whys" involved than would a family looking at the situation from the outside. I felt you would be interested in the effect mandatory busing has had on our immediate family as well as our friends and the community at large.
In 1954, the United States Supreme Court ruled that segregated schools violate the constitutional rights of black children. On June 10, 1968, the San Francisco Board of Education voted as its official policy the "orderly integration" of its schools and, in the fall of 1970, the Board opened the Richmond Complex as the first step. It planned to open a second complex last fall. However, in the meantime, the NAACP filed suit asking that all San Francisco elementary schools be integrated, and on July 9, 1971, U. S. District Judge Stanley Weigel ordered just that. The school board, which had hoped to move more slowly, appealed that order, but this appeal was denied. Certain school officials maintain that it is impossible to achieve a significant degree of desegregation without busing because of the residential patterns in San Francisco. Thus, on Monday, September 13, 1971, 97 elementary schools in our city were integrated by a general busing plan (called the "horseshoe plan").
The facts of the San Francisco busing plan reveal that 97 elementary schools are divided into seven zones. The elementary schools are divided into primary (kindergarten through grade three) and intermediate (grades four through six) schools. Each child is assigned to one school in the zone in which he lives, and almost every child will live close enough to walk to this school. Each child is also assigned to a second school, during his first seven years of school, to which he will have to be bused. Of the 46,000 children enrolled in these 97 elementary schools, approximately a little over one-half are being bused.
According to State Board of Education guidelines on integration, each ethnic minority in a given school must fall within fifteen points of the percentage which that ethnic group bears to the entire school district population. Since in San Francisco white students comprise 34.8% of the school population, this means that in any given elementary school, white students may number between 20% and 50% Actually, the case in San Francisco is unique. For the first time in the complicated national history of school desegregation and eventual busing, the rights of large minorities other than the black minority have been involved. I mean chiefly the Oriental and Spanish speaking communities who fear that the special educational needs of their children will suffer from integration resulting from busing.
Instead of facing the basic issues in education, the San Francisco school system for the past two years has directed all its interest and money to this phantom issue of school integration called busing.
How, then, has this forced integration through busing affected my children specifically and the community generally? On a typical and Larry walk a half-block to their "old" school where shiny new buses are lined up to transport them to their new integrated school several miles away. The artificiality of this arragement carries on throughout the entire day. In general, the children tend to seek friends among those of the same socioeconomic and intellectual level as themselves. They avoid the rowdy, undisciplined children of the ghetto, and during recess periods the groups remain unchanged. San Francisco has traditionally been viewed, as a liberal city in its tolerance of minorities However, although certain minorities such as the Oriental are accepted and respected within the city, the division between the white and black communities has even greater and more pronounced. White middle-class children observing the behavior of black children from the ghetto, develop prejudices that never existed in their minds before. When the school bell rings at the end of the day, integration comes to a screeching halt. The buses immediately depart from school. As a result, there is no opportunity for socializing Organizations such as the Cub Scouts and Girl Scouts which are dependent on the neighborhood system have, for all intents and purposes, disappeared.
I believe that the upper middle class is honestly more concerned with the education their children are receiving at the end of the bus line than with the busing issue itself. However, for the past two years all the educators' attention has been focused on busing. The concern with quality education has been set aside and there is no telling when it will be revived.
During these interim years of forced integration through busing, the average child is the one who will be most hurt by the lack of an adequate education. Studies show that if a gifted pupil from a home that is strongly supportive of education is put in a school where pupils do not come from such homes, his achievement will be little different than if he were in a school composed of others like himself, as long as special classes exist to challenge his intellect. In San Francisco various special classes exist for the gifted child and, in most cases, their education will not suffer.
The minority pupil will benefit, for studies also show that when a pupil from a home without much educational strength is placed with schoolmates with strong educational backgrounds, his achievement is likely to increase. The composition of student bodies exhibits a strong relationship to the achievement of minority pupils.
However, the average child is the one level ignored. An average integrated fifth grade in San Francisco reveals reading levels ranging from the first to seventh grades. As previously noted, the gifted and slower children are the ones receiving the most attention. The average child is left to fend for himself. In the coming years, while the minority children are catching up educationally, the average child will suffer the most.
Busing has involved the upper middle class parents more in the school program than ever before. Most of the San Francisco elementary schools do not have assistant principals or assistant teachers. As a result, there is a definite lack of supervision especially during recess periods. Many of the mothers are devoting several hours a week to remedy this situation. A number of mothers are assisting the teachers in the classroom, supervising recess periods, or teaching special classes themselves. In essence, these parents are performing tasks which are basically the responsibility of the School District.
It is crystal clear that the San Francisco compulsory busing program is serving nothing more than a social purpose. Besides rubbing against the gram of basic values such as the neighborhood school and the nearby home, busing is a procrastination until the basic questions of quality-equality education can be solved. At the moment in San Francisco, the question of quality education is not even being discussed. Presently $1.6 million is being spent on busing in San Francisco. Obviously, this money could go a long way toward im- proving the quality of the education our children are receiving. If the recent Richmond, Va., decision of city-suburb busing spreads, the question of busing will take on even greater significance. The basic question remains. When will the education the children receive at the end of the bus line become more important than the ride itself?
200 Montalvo Avenue San Francisco, Calif. 94116
Secretary, 112 Amber Valley Dr. Orinda, Calif. 94563
Treasurer, 6 Heneage Lane, Hanover, N. H. 03755
