Desegregating The Obsolete Busing System at Rio Bueno High School

Here I sit, in this chronically divided school board meeting, listening to the heated debate about the busing in our troubled school district—particularly in regards to Rio Bueno High School (RBHS). Busing may seem like not such a big issue when you first hear its topic; however, it is much like a melting ice burg exposing its web of issues as its perpetual underbelly reaches the surface. As a guidance counselor here at RBHS, I can tell you that, this busing, desegregation bussing to be more specific, has been a way of integrating other races into school since the Supreme Court Decision in Brown v. Board of Education 40 years ago. Since the 1980’s, segregation levels have increased such that urban schools are now more racially imbalanced than they were prior to the Supreme Court’s 1971 Swann v. Charlotte-Meckelburg Board of Education decision, which legitimated the use of bussing to integrate city school districts with significant residential segregation. Moreover, the gap between Black and White achievement levels, which narrowed from the early 1970s until the late 1980s, has increased during the early 1990s (Douglas, 1996) So, with this evidence, it may seem that even with the implementation of the desegregation busing system, the achievement gap is still growing between races, particularly between Black and Whites and the financial situation and the performance of the schools in this district as a whole are declining.
It is my stance that, this busing system is obsolete and the a persistent source of much of the problem that it’s claiming to solve. The current transportation idea is claiming to keep the races balanced or attempting to, but what I wonder is, why do they need to be integrated by force, why not let it happen ...

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...what equates to success in this nation.
In closing, I propose to eliminate the current transportation system and let the schools organically integrate and use these liberated financial resources to renew the schools resources to teach the children what they come to school to learn and let them be who they are.

Works Cited

Anoyn, J. (n.d.). From social class and the hidden curriculum of work In EDUC 160 Urban Education (Spring 2014, pp. 127-136).

Douglas, D., M. (1996). The end of busing? In EDUC 160 Urban Education (Spring 2014, pp. 173-196)

Richards, H., V., Brown, A., F., Forde, T., B. (2006). Addressing diversity in schools: culturally responsive pedagogy. Retreived March 30th 2014from http://www.nccrest.org/Briefs/Diversity_Brief.pdf

Ugbu, J., U. (1992). Understanding cultural diversity and learning. EDUC 160 Urban Education (Spring 2014, pp. 213-228)