LEACH FINDS that the latest evidence does not support this argument. On the basis of studies done in ten cities, five prominent sociologists found that busing did not improve the academic achievement of black children. Leach reports that recent studies also find that the psychological impact of busing is more likely to be negative rather than positive. The sudden change to a more demanding, competitive environment with higher academic standards lowers academic motivation and self-esteem. This is especially true when the receiving community is hostile to busing. The studies indicate black students suffer substantial psychological damage when busing is accompanied by ridicule, violence and boycotts.
In addition, the pattern in most cities has been to close predominantly black schools with many black personnel and bus the students to white schools. This suggests to students that black institutions and personnel are inferior to white ones and, as black columnist William Raspberry writes, "essays to black children that they are somehow improved by the presence of whites." This humiliating experience, Raspberry says, suggests to black children that there is something wrong with them that only whites can cure. The humiliation causes feelings of inferiority and has negative psychological effects.
The entire "middle-class culture" argument, like most pro-busing theories, is intolerably humiliating and condescending to minorities and implicitly racist. It seems to say that poor black kids need to be exposed to neat bright white kids bursting with learning ability. But given good schools and teachers, there is no reason why minority children can't do as well, even when they are in the majority, as white kids in similar circumstances. Those who say they can't belong in the same camp as Shockley and his bunch and should be treated the same way.
The degrading theme of many pro-busing arguments has been a major reason for the sporadic support for busing from the black community. Raspberry, Roy Innis of the Congress of Racial Equality, and a National Black Convention in 1972 have all taken stands opposed to busing. The most progressive blacks realize that busing students from one bad school to another, as in Boston, doesn't help anyone. The educational effect of busing, on the whole, seems to be detrimental to both black and white children.
Another argument for busing is that it will improve racial harmony. Leach finds, however, that "busing for racial integration has produced little or no improvement in race relations. In fact, the results appear to be to the contrary." It is no surprise that the use of force has failed to achieve harmony.
In fact, busing is often counterproductive in its goal of achieving integration. Forced busing has quite often caused white parents to move to the suburbs or put their children in private schools, increasing segregation. In Boston, realtors have reported increased sales by white homeowners in the last year. The U.S. Office of Civil Rights reports Boston has lost 15 per cent of its white students this year.
When busing is not counter productive it is often superficial in its practical effects. The Human Rights Commission reported late last year that after ten years of busing to achieve integration, James Madison High School in Brooklyn remains internally segregated. Black and white students don't eat, play, talk, study or gather together. Students in Berkeley, California, testified before a Senate committee in 1971 that there was minimal interracial contact after three years of cross-town busing. One high school's student body president reported whites would not attend school dances or eat lunch with blacks. He said that the only time the races were integrated was when they had to pass each other in the hallways between classes.
LEACH'S STUDY shows that the latest evidence fails to support the fundamental assumptions on which busing advocates have relied. Overall, the effect of busing seems to be quite negative "in light of the tremendous social, political, and economic costs being paid for busing, the absence of any consistent educational gains, the deleterious psychological impact upon black children, and the increased polarization of the races." These shortcomings, in addition to busing's superficial and counterproductive nature, the use of force it involves, and its reliance on implicitly racist quotas and educational theories, compel one to reject busing as a means of achieving racial harmony and improving education.
Judge Garrity's justification for busing is that the Boston school committee broke the law by discriminating against minorities in the past. But this is strange reasoning. Usually when a law is broken the courts punish the person who broke it. In this case, according to Garrity, the lawbreakers are the members of the Boston school committee. But they are not the ones being bused! Busing punishes the public, parents and students, whom Garrity did not find guilty of breaking the law. Garrity's busing order has little to do with the crime. Rather he seems to have gleefully seized on the school committee's past actions as an excuse to impose a program he deems desirable. If he found illegal practices he should have ordered them stopped and punished those responsible, not taken custody of Boston's school children.
What can be done then to break down racial barriers and improve education? Professor Milton Friedman has advanced a voucher proposal, under which every parent would receive the average amount of tax dollars spent on his child, say $1000, in voucher form. He could then use this voucher to send his child to any school, public or private, he chose. This plan would benefit mostly the poor, who would have a chance to escape decrepit inner city schools. The plan would greatly improve education as schools become subject to the demands of the market place. Friedman writes, "Private schools of all kinds would spring up to meet the demand. Public schools would either have to meet the competition or close their doors." The plan would increase the range of choice, respect rights, and allow peaceful integration.
The validity of these arguments is strengthened by the unquestionable failure of busing in Boston this year. Boycotts, violence, and fear have wasted a whole school year for many students. Bitterness, frustration, and hatred caused by busing have increased racial prejudice, not eliminated it. Millions of dollars have been spent for these results, money that could have helped education. If Garrity insists that this insanity is the law, then the law should be changed. That change would be the first step for the American people in regaining control over a government originally founded to protect the people from aggression, but that is now the chief aggressor.