Desegregation Grades

Dallas operates the eighth largest school district in the U.S. Last week, as classes began, 18,000 fourth-to eighth-grade students were being bused, and some 5,000 secondary-school pupils had volunteered to be transferred to four "magnet" schools. The city's first desegregation plan, designed by a volunteer group of whites, blacks and Mexican Americans, resulted in no disruptions--the only snafus were some lost and late buses. Said Dallas School Superintendent Nolan Estes, who drove one of the buses himself: "We think we have a good plan, and we're doing everything we can to make it work."

That kind of positive attitude would help in other cities that are desegregating this fall--Omaha, St. Louis, Milwaukee and Dayton. At least that is one of the findings of a report issued last week by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. In a 315-page study, the bipartisan five-member commission concludes that in spite of the bitterness and violence that arose in some cities, most notably Boston and Louisville, in recent years most school desegregation in the U.S. "has gone peacefully and smoothly." The commission based its report on four hearings (in Boston, Louisville, Denver and Tampa, Fla.), four open meetings (in Berkeley, Calif., Minneapolis, Stamford, Conn., and Corpus Christi, Texas), a mail survey of 1,300 school districts, and comprehensive analyses of 29 school districts scattered across the nation.

Parents Help. The cities and districts surveyed represent almost half of all school systems in the country with enrollments of more than 1,500 students and with at least 5% minority students. Roughly two-thirds of the districts have by now taken substantial steps to desegregate. Of these, one-third are in the Southeast, where only 5% of the 306 districts surveyed have not significantly desegregated. In the Northeast and North Central states, about a third of the school districts have desegregated in the past decade, while in the West fewer than a quarter of them have done so. Interestingly, the courts provided the major impetus in about a third, the Department of Health, Education and Welfare in a quarter and local pressures in more than 40% of the desegregated districts.

Whatever the impetus, the report emphasizes that by and large, desegregation has not been a traumatic experience for the affected communities. It can proceed uneventfully with support from city and school-board leaders, parental participation in the formulation of the plans, and such precautionary measures as a "rumor control center." "You just have to sit and answer call after call from the concerned people," said the supervisor of such a center in Tampa. Of those school districts surveyed, 82% desegregated without serious disruption. The report specifically cites Tampa, Stamford, Minneapolis and Tacoma, Wash., as cities where the desegregation plans worked well because of community support.

The effect of desegregation on the quality of education in the schools is, of course, more difficult to measure. Overall, 75% of the school superintendents responding to the survey say that the quality of education in their schools is unchanged, 15% say it has improved, and 10% note a deterioration. In Williamsburg County, S.C., and Berkeley, achievement-test scores have risen since desegregation. Other "beneficial byproducts" of desegregation often include, the report says, better instructional programs, a reduction in dropout rates and increased participation of parents in school affairs. At the commission's hearing in Boston; Jane Margulis testified that it was "very frightening for me to think that I would be putting [my children] on a bus to the black community, which I knew nothing about. I had to make myself comfortable in order to make them feel comfortable. The first thing I did was start working in my middle daughter's school."

President Hurts. On the other hand, the report frankly concedes that disciplinary problems have markedly increased in many of the desegregated schools, with a disproportionate number of minority youngsters subject to disciplinary measures--often suspensions and expulsions. During the first four months of desegregation in Denver, 3,844 high school students were suspended, 2,748 of whom were minority students. In Louisville, one principal complained: "Those kids tend to talk back more, they tend to be louder."

The commission sharply criticizes the political leaders in troubled Boston and Louisville. Elected officials in Louisville, the report finds, "abdicated their responsibility to maintain law and order" during the busing violence last year. Boston Mayor Kevin White and the city council, says the commission, displayed a "virtual total lack of support for court desegregation orders" that "reinforced the view that desegregation would never come to pass."

The report also censures President Ford for his "equivocal public comments" that bolstered antibusing groups in Boston and his proposals to legislate curbs on busing that "undermine the desegregation process and jeopardize the rights of minority students." Ford failed to respond directly to the charges, saying simply that his Administration is following the law and he has "faith in the Attorney General and HEW." It may be that Ford was unaware of the commission report's title: "Fulfilling the Letter and Spirit of the Law."

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