Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity officials discuss future of voluntary desegregation system
In the shadow of the Supreme Court’s school race and student assignment ruling and the legal challenge to Lynn School Committee’s student assignment plan, Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity (Metco) officials have called an emergency meeting to discuss the future of their voluntary desegregation system. Metco buses about 3,289 minority students from Boston and Springfield to 38 suburban school systems. "This is the worst decision that we’ve had in 50 years," says Metco executive director Jean M. McGuire, referring to the recent Supreme Court cases: "Nobody knows anything. We know that it’s bad. We know it’s very bad." Attorney Chester Darling, who is leading the challenge to Lynn’s plan, is also contemplating legal action to end Metco’s practice of serving only minority students. He says, "The basic concept is great - to get the kids out to the suburbs to get a benefit - but extend it to poor kids, not just the minorities."
According to a 2007 Metco report, 87% of participants who graduated high school from 2002 to 2004 attended college, compared to 54% of Boston Public Schools graduates. The report also states that without Metco the 32 suburban school districts that participate would become 89% white. While some have speculated that the court ruling will lead more school districts to consider income instead of race to achieve school diversity, advocates generally panned the notion of applying that approach to Metco. "This law was not written for economic consideration. It was written for race and there clearly is a race gap here," says state representative Frank Smizik, a former member of the Metco board and Brookline School Committee. Some fear that the ruling may give suburban school districts incentive to abandon Metco. "You often hear grumblings of people saying, ‘If it weren’t for the Metco students, our scores would be higher,’" says Glenn Koocher, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees. "Some communities may use this as an excuse to say, ‘We’ve done our civic duty for 30 years. Now let’s get out of here.’"
Boston Herald
By Laura Crimaldi
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[Editor's Note: Information on the Supreme Court's decision is available below.]
[NSBA School Law pages on PICS v. Seattle Sch. Dist. No. 1]