Boston: Separate but Equal

Fourteen years after Federal Judge Arthur Garrity ordered crosstown busing to desegregate Boston’s public schools, the city is embarking on another overhaul of its troubled educational system. Last week local experts hired by Mayor Ray Flynn proposed a new approach, called controlled choice, that seeks to foster competition while maintaining the painfully achieved racial balance. Next fall schools through Grade 8 would be divided among three equally funded zones, with 14,000 students apiece. Within each zone, parents would be allowed to choose a particular school for their child, and pupils would be assigned to available spots in a way that preserved each school’s racial balance. Facilities that failed to attract enough students would be phased out. Says the plan’s co-author, Charles Willie of Harvard: “We’ve learned that the emphasis has to be on education rather than mixing and matching students.”