TriX wrote:
Without suggesting anything racially derogatory, the integration of schools in the 60s and the attendant desire to create racially diverse schools, increased bussing within urban areas dramatically. Also, the addition of “magnet schools (at least in NC where I live) increased bussing. Prior to that, most students lived in proximity to their schools, and walked, rode bikes, or were driven by their parents.
That's entirely true…but in those days after the Civil Rights Act districts were forced to create diverse schools and the associated bussing of kids. An alternative would have been to fix the inner city schools so that they provided the same education as the richer suburb schools provided…and then perhaps the need for as much bussing would not have been required. A hard problem…but admittedly the inner city schools got short thrift on funding, quality teachers, and facilities for a long time…but I'm not sure that inequity was entirely rooted in the race but rather the economic conditions that forced inner cities to be higher percentage of non whites. OTOH, clearly there were some race considerations involved in the lower levels of funding…but all in all I think neighborhood schools are really superior to a whole lot of bussing…but one has to make sure that the schools are the same…then also allow the bussing option if parents would rather their kids go to a more diverse school as there are also advantages to that.
Fortunately…I went to parochial schools for elementary and high school …you went to the school in your local parish and almost every parish had a school and there was 1 parochial high school where we went.