Critics say this shift marks a step backward. These same schools are now, in fact, separate and unequal. Others, however, view this trend as an end to expensive judicial intrusion into the local matter of schooling. And therein lies the dilemma. Integration vs. education.
Schools are in the business of educating students.
But with court-ordered desegregation since the 1950s, schools' objectives have included working toward a racially integrated society. Many would contend, especially after seeing some districts' labyrinthine busing maps, that mandating the integration of classrooms has cost a good number of students any chance of a fair and quality education. They have been, for the most part, the ones to ride buses to distant, suburban schools. He describes his crash-course lesson in civics after trying to transfer his minority child to a neighborhood school. Another contributor provides a case history of legal decisions that have removed districts from court-ordered desegregation.