Today I was reminded that only three percent or around 4,200 of the 140,000+ students in the Wake County Public School System are bused for “diversity.”
If this is the case (and I have not reason to believe otherwise) and proponents insist that forced busing works, then
1) The school system should evaluate the academic performance of these 4,000+ students, compared to students with similar demographic characteristics;
2) The school system should determine the mean and median road miles, time traveled, and transportation costs for the bused cohort, compared to their neighborhood school peers;
3) The school system should provide descriptive/demographic statistics on the bused cohort and compare those statistics to district and school means and medians;
4) If we can identify the bused cohort, then (note to pro-busing researchers) district-level performance is irrelevant. A cohort representing three percent of the student body will have a negligible effect on district averages. School-level performance may be relevant, depending on the number of students forcibly bused to a given school. Classroom-level performance comparisons would be an important measure; and
5) Forcibly bused students and their parents should be surveyed to obtain qualitative date on the physical, behavioral, and educational ramifications of forced busing.
