THE FAILURE OF BUSING

To the Editors of The Crimson

The Masters in the Boston school desegregation case, two of them affiliated with the Harvard Graduate School of Education will probably announce their Phase 11 desegregation proposal in the near future. Their proposal is likely to involve redistricting of students within six modified desegregation zones, made possible by involuntary busing. The Master's proposal may also include some inducements for voluntary integration, such as magnet schools and program choice. However, voluntary means of desegregation will probably receive lower financial priority. As Dentler, a court-appointed expert remarks. "One ought to stay within predictably available resources." The Harvard masters have no children attending Boston schools, yet community groups were not allowed to testify. In general, it appears that Phase II will look very much like Phase 1.

Integration, in addition to promoting unity between nationalities, ought to improve the quality of education. This is exactly what the the Boston busing plan does not and is not likely to do, Boston schools are so uniformly bad that no one has been bused to a better school. Yet money that might be spent on improving education has been spent instead on buses and police forces. Over-crowding has increased because some schools were closed. Black and other third world students have been bused away from language and cultural programs.

People have directed their anger at each other instead of at low quality education. The Boston School Committee, which allowed Boston schools to deteriorate while they promoted segregation and racism, blame black people for the low quality of education. On the other hand. Judge Garrity's decision essentially puts the burden of improving black people's education on working class white people. His busing plan, for example, does not include the suburbs. Black and white people ought to place the responsibility for their deteriorating schools where it belongs: with the people who run the Boston school system, and ultimately, with a capitalist system which assigns low priority to working people's welfare and to the education of their children.

Integration is a generally progressive goal. The Boston School Committee has opposed busing in a consistently racist manner. Though this sort of opposition is incorrect, it is nevertheless apparent that the Boston busing plan defeats the goals of integration: improving the quality of everyone's education and increasing the solidarity and understanding between nationalities. Pam Compton