The issue of busing children to schools scheduled for racial integration, and the cry for preservation of “neighborhood schools,” are “spurious issues,” the National Community Relations Advisory Council declared here today.
In a statement representing the views of six major national Jewish organizations and 74 local Jewish community councils, the NCRAC called for “high priority” to the elimination of “de facto racial segregation from our public schools,” saying this must be done “as a matter of public policy and educational purpose.” “Racial integration in public schools,” the NCRAC declared, “is an essential component of good education in our society. It is not a substitute for quality. Neither is it an alternative to quality. Racial integration and quality education are mutually complementary and interdependent.”
Criticizing “diversionary arguments over spurious issues,” the statement held that neither the argument about neighborhood schools nor the procedure of busing has “supreme value.” “School districts are not neighborhoods,” the NCRAC declared. Busing is not a policy. Of itself, it has no educational value, positive or negative. Accordingly, we neither favor nor oppose busing per se.”
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