Busing | Research & Encyclopedia Articles

Transporting students a distance to a school

Since the 1970s, the term busing has come to mean the transporting of students to schools outside their immediate neighborhoods, usually in an attempt to achieve desegregation. The federal courts have mandated busing to reflect the goal of racial balance in all schools within a district. Busing is part of a program of involuntary desegregation; voluntary desegregation is characterized by strategies such as magnet schools and district-wide open enrollment, where families are offered incentives of unique curricula or other programs to encourage them to enroll in other-than-neighborhood schools. Supporters of court-ordered or involuntary desegregation have encouraged busing as a key strategy in achieving equal educational opportunity for all students, regardless or racial, ethnic, or religious background. Some critics feel that communities should be allowed to pursue alternative strategies for achieving racial balance before the courts step in with prescriptive orders.

Brown V. Board of Education