Race Based Busing In Schools

A major issue in this counties school system is the issue with busing students, with the biggest one being to change the schools from race assignment or income based. With the change being implemented the schools have become more segregated. North Carolina as a whole stopped using race based assignment plans in the late 1900s after a series of court cases struck down the practices in various settings around the country (Kemp, 2015).In 2000 Wake tried a new assignment policy that was based on income and achievement. This would make it so that no school would consist of more than 40 percent of the students receiving free or reduce lunch, nor more than 25 percent of students performing below grade level, the policy was voted to be ceased in 2010.

Wake county school board is seeking to replace a policy which based on race, to a socioeconomic in regards to student placement. While reviewing the current policy there were some problems that were uncovered such as graduation rates declining, district comparisons showing Wake schools at a lower performance level, and low income students were denied equal academic opportunities. For decades courts debated the legality of race based busing which would place

Back in 1971 Supreme Court ruled in Swann v. Charlotte Mecklenburg Board Of Education that forced busing was an appropriate remedy to segregated schools. In 2001, the race based busing in charlotte Mecklenburg schools ceased when a court ruled that the district had achieved “unitary status”. One year later the district began to assign students to neighborhood schools. In comparison to Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools, Wake County Schools had chosen completely different ways of assigning students. Wake County elected to assign students based on the ratio of low-income children to middle class children, while Charlotte-Mecklenburg assigned students based on proximity of the school to their