Based on your reading in the webtext, select and respond to one of the following thesis statements. Your response should be two to three paragraphs long and should include your position on the issue. Cite at least three specific pieces of historical evidence.

1. In the long run, busing helped Boston because it desegregated the school system, provided equal educational opportunity for minority students, and set the stage for racial healing and an improved racial climate in the twenty-first century.

OR

2. In the long run, busing hurt Boston because it led to violent racial strife, contributed to white flight, and damaged the quality of the public school system.

In response to your peers, explain what you learned from reading their post and how their thesis statement compares to your own. You may respond to peers who selected either of the two thesis statements.

To complete this assignment, review the Discussion Rubric document.

Peer 1

I decided to go with the second statement.

In the long run, busing hurt Boston because it led to violent racial strife, contributed to white flight, and damaged the quality of the public school system.

Busing wasn’t accepted by most people in Boston. The white families were questioning why it had to be done and it caused more damage than it did good. It led to violent protests and violence in general. “Stones and bottles thrown at buses broke the windows and cut children’s skin. High school students beat each other with fists and clubs. A black man who happened to be parked near a gang of white youths was dragged from his car, kicked and beaten until rescued—and only because he was black.” The busing led to white fight and white parents took their children out of the public school system to get a “better” education in a public school setting. This would only hurt the public school system for years to come.

Busing failed to do anything to improve the education opportunities for African American children. In fact it seemed to almost make things worse. Even though the schools are technically desegregated, these children weren’t being given the same opportunities as other white children and weren’t learning nearly as much but were still being pushed onto higher grade levels. This obviously only hurts these children in the long run and causes so many problems. It’s terrible to think that there are some public school systems are still struggling with this issue today.

Peer 2

So I decided to go with the below statement.

” In the long run, busing hurt Boston because it led to violent racial strife, contributed to white flight, and damaged the quality of the public school system.”

My view on this source is clear, I feel that children and even in colleges are fighting to have a better education as it relates to this fight for real quality education.

“White Americans started to move from the city, take their children out of the schools and transfer rates became high” This is very evident that they felt that blacks were not worthy of receiving the same education as whites and I feel that this is still happening today. I feel that now it is a label being slapped on education and that is “Private Schools” it is a way to say to minorities if you can’t afford our price, You can’t afford our education. In return public school teachers, are underpaid and they have to deal with a lot of different things that private school teachers don’t, and that puts a really bad dent on students and teachers who really want to change the way we see education in our communities.

Fierce resistance in several of the city’s predominantly white neighborhoods forced state police and National Guard troops to escort African-American students into the schools, and the ensuing “Boston busing crisis” roiled the schools, and the city, for years. (Lukas, 1985)

This is something that really made matters worst when blacks had to be escorted to schools, just to get an education and this goes back to today’s time where students have to worry about a mass shooting in a school. All f the above ties to what is still today a Boston issue in our country.

Let’s ARGUE…….