Is involuntary bussing still legal?

[napi21]

My son bought a house in a particular sub-division for several reasons, but one big reason was because the school his children would attend is less than ONE mile away!

Last night, the school Board voted to accept a redrawing of the map to "redistrict" his sub-division into a neighboring school district, so now the children from that S/D will have to ride a bus for 12-15 miles each way instead on only ONE!

The parents in BOTH affected school districts are very unhappy!

Are decisions like this EVER overturned? Who can we complain to? Can this decision be appealed? Other than the local residents, who does the School Board have to answer to?

[eyesroll]

1. This doesn't sound like race-based "bussing." Just standard redistricting.

As far as I know, this is legal and common. Plenty of kids do ride busses 10-20 miles to school because, well, that's where the school is.

You probably do have recourse, though -- you can apply for a waiver to attend the nearby school. The local residents can be a good lobbying force, to the school board and the state department of education.

[napi21]

4. I guess there is a debate wether this is race based or not.

The one district is 95%+ black and the other is only 35% black. When board members were asked if this was for desegration reasons, most said no, but several said "of course it is!"

The real problem is that almost all the parents in both districts purchased their homes in order to be near their childs school. Some walk to school now.

Both sides submitted petitions AGAINST this to the School Board, and had 97% of the residents signing their petitions, and the school board just ignored them and did their own thing. They want to be able to appeal the decision!

[Burning Water]

8. This is a

sacrifice we all have to make in order to ensure a just society for people of all races and colors. It happened to me, too, when my son was in school, and I was no happier about it than you.

[William769]

2. The school board answers to the voters.

Hint hint.

[napi21]

5. I already told my son that last night!

I told him, wheneever he talks to his neighbors, he needs to remind them that school board members are VOTED IN and OUT, and even those are positions way down on the ballot, this is why it's so important to pay attention!

[woodsprite]

3. They do the same thing here, but don't call it deseg.

Instead they say they're basing it on economics (can't have too many subsidized lunch programs at one school). Honest to Pete, that was what was in the local paper. It means that our Christina School district is pulled from Newark and from the far side of another city (Wilmington). Stupid, stupid, stupid. Some kids are on I-95 for over an hour a day!

We moved where we are now because our daughter got into a charter school and wouldn't need to be bussed. Where we lived before, a local middle school was one block away, but she would have been bussed 25 min. down the road. We apparently lived right on the dividing line of the district. Due to crowding, the school 1 block away was not accepting school choice applications.

[mzteris]

6. no -

kissing someone against their will can be considered sexual assault.

I can't believe they're making kids do that.



:rofl:

[Rhiannon12866]

7. I was going to respond to that, as well, but thought it was snarky,

this early in the day, LOL! When referring to traveling on buses, it's "busing." "Bussing means something different, entirely." :* A small point, but one you need to know, if you're going to be communicating with School Board members. That's one reason that it was a good idea to run this by your friends on DU.:-)

And I agree with what hs been said about contacting the School Board. Your son should get in touch with these folks and ask them the reasoning behind his, and let them know how he feels about his children being sent elsewhere, when he specifically chose a neighborhood that's close to a school. And he should get other parents and neighbors on board with this. But, first, he has to learn what the reasoning is. My cousin was bused, for purposes of integration, but that was back in the '70s. I didn't think that they were doing this anymore.:shrug: