Officials admit that desegregation efforts contradict freedom of choice for parents. Nishina Morrison's children cannot attend King Academy of Math and Science next year, even though they live a block away from the school. Her children for the past three years have boarded buses that have taken them from their neighborhood in the middle of the city to Des Moines' far east side, and now to its western fringes. Busing of the African-American students is part of an effort to improve racial balance in schools.
Officials say they have little choice but to continue adhering to that plan.
They also acknowledge that efforts to integrate classrooms contradict the goal of letting people choose where their children will go to school. Those most affected in Des Moines are inner-city students. Morrison said the choices of schools for her children are limited. King, the family's neighborhood school, is not a possibility because its minority enrollment exceeds desegregation guidelines. Other schools with high minority enrollments also are off limits, something Morrison learned when she tried to enroll a son in Moore Elementary School.