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Show The Birch Log Forced Busing Rolls On by John F. McManus Belmont, Massachusetts When the Carter family took up residence in the nation's capital, one campaign promise that was kept involved the choice of a school for nine-year-old Amy. Mrs. Carter carefully selected the Thaddeus Stevens School, a racially integrated public school only a few blocks from the White House. Because of the choice, TV cameras whirred, newshounds swarmed all over the schoolhouse, and the American Ameri-can people were led to believe that the Carters were "jes' folks" like you and me. Almost totally lost was the glaring fact that, unlike millions of other parents, the Carters were able to choose their daughter's school. We have no intention of contesting that right. What we would like to see is its extension to all parents, especially those victimized by the plague of forced busing. Obviously, the characterization characteriza-tion of the Carters as "jes' folks" is a lie. Americans who do fit that characterization do not always get such a choice. And any description of forced busing as anything other than a racial and educational disaster is also a lie. Los Angeles Is Next In June 1976, the California Supreme Court ordered desegregation desegre-gation in the Los Angeles system beginning in September 1977. Various plans are now being studied all of which involve massive forced busing. School officials estimate a cost of $26 million for this program that virtually no one wants. About $23 million of this cost must be derived from program and teacher cuts. How this will contribute con-tribute to "quality education" is known only to bureaucrats and politicians. Los Angeles, of course, is only the latest in a long list of cities to feel the heavy hand of government gov-ernment controlling its schools and children. Boston, Louisville, Dayton, San Francisco, Denver, and others have been forced to swallow the bitter pill of forced busing. In Boston, the federal judge who rules the schools is not content with the chaos already recorded. He has now ordered busing of kindergarten pupils! Dean Tony Brown One of the growing number of black Americans who oppose this madness is Tony Brown, the founding dean of Howard University's School of Communications. Commu-nications. In a TV special produced pro-duced under his direction, he concluded that forced busing is a sociological disaster spawned by the false premise that black children benefit from proximity to whites. In the half-hour show "Does Busing Work?", he castigated cas-tigated the Supreme Court's 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Educa-tion decision as a "legal treatise on the inherent inferiority of black people," a treatise he rejects re-jects as grossly insulting. Armed with facts, he showed that most black Americans do not want busing. Neither, we add, do Mexican-Americans, Irish-Americans, Irish-Americans, or any Americans. How to Stop Busing There is no sign of relief, either. In fact, last February, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights urged the extension of forced busing across city, county, and even state lines. Taxpayers who want their children chil-dren close to home paid over a million dollars for that tripe. The U.S. Senate recently voted (51-42) to prohibit the withholding of federal funds as a club to force busing. What good such a vote will do is highly questionable. Both Houses of Congress are on record as overwhelmingly over-whelmingly opposed to busing, but busing goes on and on. Anyone seriously interested in stopping this horror should look into Congressman Larry McDonald's (D.-Ga.) bill, H.R. 4479. The bill will simply remove federal court jurisdiction over pupil placement. Authority for such a move is contained in Article III, Section 1, of the Constitution. Does your Congressman Con-gressman support H.R. 4479? 1977 The John Birch Society Featuret FOR INFORMATION CONCERNING THE BIRCH LOG. CALL BILL REAGAN 586-6226 1 " '-m ' 1 " |