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Show An election-year confrontation v by LEONARD MCGEE Chronicle Staff Business is not a racial issue. It isn't even a real issue. If any issue can be glimpsed in the middle of the busing controversy, it is the issue of education. Mr. Nixon has managed to shift people's focus so much to the busing problem that they forget whether their kids are learning to read and write and add busing or no busing. Senator McGovern has stated throughout the busing controversy that the real issue is "quality education at the end of the school bus line." Senator McGovern has believed in and fought for the principle and practice of integrated schools, and he is supported sup-ported in his views by the majority of experts who have studied the situation and found integrated education to be better for the children and the community. Busing is a hassle for everyone, but it is the price we are paying for a century of segregated housing. Senator McGovern has set the issue straight. "For more than a generation, Black children were bused to avoid integrating schools. One of the more cynical aspects of our present debate is that Presiient Nixon, seeking to make political capital of this difficult situation, is ignoring history and asking the nation to believe the problem began yesterday." Richard Nixon has used his office once again to further his own political ambitions by turning a national issue of equal education into an issue of emotional partisan politics. The President has split this nation over essentially a "non-issue" rather than "bringing us together" behind the United States Constitution. by JOHN R.GROVER Chronicle Staff While it was conceived as a means fa ?; educational disadvantages and segregate; busing really provided the solution to the put; Has it increased the quality of education where' been attempted? Or has it achieved results Dials:; wants; the polarization of communities nt division of student bodies within schools busing has been practiced? The Republican national platform of Aug.' 1972 makes Its position known in no uncertaii-It uncertaii-It states that the Republican Party is m opposed to busing. The platform says that bust failed to accomplish its stated objectives of m learning opportunities and that it is unntcs counter-productive and wrong. It also states tr Party is committed to completing the pros ending de jure school segregation and guararr-equality guararr-equality of educational opportunity to all pest; While in the Southeast I talked with pa: children who participated in busing programs ' hearing the personal opinions of both blackarrt' young and old, I got the feeling that busings for cattle but not for children. It created mail" and serious problems than it solved andte:' lems far outweighed any original advantap' was to be gained from the busing program. To put it on a personal level, would you ltot the choice of school to you and yourchildorfe possibility of the government doing it for I choice is still yours in November. |