School Busing and Politics

Archive Report

National Controversy Over Busing

Entry of Busing Issue Into Election-Year Politics

Almost twenty million elementary and high school children—42 per cent of the total—now ride buses to and from school. The vast majority do so because schools are not within walking distance of their homes. Increasing numbers, however, are transported to distant schools because those in their areas are racially segregated. Busing of school children to achieve integration has become politically explosive and is shaping up as the dominant emotional issue in this election year.

A wave of opposition has moved Congress to act on anti-busing measures and open hearings on about 40 proposed constitutional amendments to curb busing as a tool of integration. President Nixon, who has consistently stressed his opposition to “forced busing,” has asked ...

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