More American cities are standing up to the Department of Education and ending the failed practice of forced busing of students. These school districts realize school busing does not achieve the goals set out in the 1960’s of lifting poor (minority) children by sending them to the same schools as rich (white) students. It is the same, time-proven lesson that one can lead a horse to water but cannot make it drink.

Wealthy families have gotten around the terrible act of forced busing by simply moving to the suburbs away from counties with large black populations. Angry White Dude grew up in North Carolina. After living in the People’s Republic of Minnesota for three years, I moved back to Charlotte. While looking for a house, I noticed realtors would say “there’s no busing in that neighborhood.” I worked with several and they all were quick to point out there was no busing in certain areas. Why? Because Charlotte schools were a disaster zone with poor black children bused into white neighborhood schools. Homes were more valuable if they were outside of Mecklenburg County (Charlotte) because they had neighborhood schools with local children. A friend’s wife was a school teacher in a particularly bad Charlotte middle school. She told me that every teacher that had taught at that school for more than two years had been physically attacked by a student. You can guess the race of the students. The School Board would not let the school expel the students so usually the assaulting student was back in class with the same teacher a week later. The teachers were terrified to teach there.

Black children causing trouble in school is found in any city. Certainly, there are whites and students of other races who cause trouble but not in such large numbers as blacks. In Detroit, where schools are nearly all black, only 21% of students graduate high school on time. I’m not sure if this reflects the teaching abilities of the schools or the teach-ability of the students. I tend to suspect it is the latter. Many black children simply don’t want to study and see being educated as “acting white.” These students generally come from single-parent families who impose no discipline. These students are allowed to disrupt and terrorize schools by politically correct school boards afraid of civil rights lawyers and racist groups like the NAACP. For that reason, most large cities have seen “white flight.” White flight is where white families move to suburbs to escape the public school systems of large cities.

What is the answer? Stop wasting money and time on the failed politically correct theory of forced busing. The students bused into a school lower the quality of education rather than seeing their academic performance elevated. The truth must be accepted. Some students simply don’t care about education. Those students should be separated and be sent to vocational schools where they can learn a trade if they like. If not, they should be expelled. Poor students who desire educations should be allowed to study at high quality charter schools. These students must be given every opportunity to receive the education they deserve and not be limited by poor quality students in their neighborhood. School vouchers could guarantee poor students a quality education. Of course, every school must be equal in talent levels of teaching staff and materials on hand. By following these suggestions, we can stop pretending that more money will solve the problem. Political correctness is a lie and many cities are starting to admit the obvious after wasting 40 years and billions of dollars.

True story from last school year. AWD’s cousin’s daughter had always attended private school through her middle school years. She wanted the high school experience at a public school in Greensboro, NC. On the first day of school, she took the bus. My cousin received a frantic call from her daughter in the principal’s office. She was hysterical, terrified and wanted to go home after what the black boys on the bus told her graphically what they were going to do to her sexually. She was literally a sheep before wolves. My cousin took her daughter out of school that day and put her back in the private school.

Busing only brings down education levels by forcing bad students on good schools. It is expensive and a failure. It is time for forced busing to end!

Here’s a story about the NAACP taking on the Raleigh schools to keep busing:

http://www.newsobserver.com/politics/story/276936.html