Bus Stop

President Nixon's stance on the subject of school desegregation in general and busing in particular has never really been in question. Last year he eased Robert Finch, a close friend who was then Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, out of his job, in part for pressing too hard on integration. Finch's replacement, Elliot Richardson, has now been left stranded. Last week, moving abruptly to "disavow" HEW's busing plan for schools in Austin, Texas, Nixon emphatically restated his position: "I have consistently opposed the busing of our nation's schoolchildren to achieve a racial balance, and I am opposed to the busing of children simply for the sake of busing. Further, while the Executive Branch will continue to enforce the orders of the court, including court-ordered busing, I have instructed the Attorney General and the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare that they are to work with individual school districts to hold busing to the minimum required by law."

In a few terse sentences, Nixon thereby gave recalcitrant school districts in the South--and North--an official excuse for making little haste very slowly. In the Austin case, U.S. District Judge Jack Roberts had rejected the HEW proposal, which called for extensive busing; Roberts had opted instead for an alternative advanced by the local school board, which planned only intermittent busing of pupils as a sort of intramural cultural-exchange program.

Nixon conceded that the Justice Department would have to appeal Judge Roberts' decision, because the Supreme Court had upheld the principle of bus ing in a decision last April involving schools in North Carolina, Georgia and Alabama. But, he said, the Government would no longer argue for the HEW plan; instead, it would seek a compromise. Nixon also instructed Richardson to submit an amendment to prohibit use of funds from his $1.5 billion Emergency School Assistance Act for busing.

There was some reason for the Government's retreat on the Austin busing question; the HEW plan had some technical weaknesses. Still, Richardson thought he had persuaded Nixon and Attorney General John Mitchell to carry out the busing decision (TIME, Aug. 9). He was informed of the President's move at the last minute, and carried no personal plea or protest to Nixon.

Opinion v. Law. Said Minnesota's Democratic Senator Walter Mondale, who shepherded the Senate version of the school assistance bill: "I do not think that in the long term this country will reward the President for attempting to pit public opinion against the rule of law announced by the Supreme Court." In New York, the N.A.A.C.P. Legal Defense and Education Fund said that it may intervene in the Austin case in advocacy of the HEW plan.

On the other hand, busing opponents --especially in Texas--were displeased that the President chose to have the Justice Department press the appeal at all. Although Nixon was at considerable pains to assure Senator John Tower that the Government would proceed no further than the law absolutely requires, the crusty Texas Republican was not easily appeased. "It appears that he does not really oppose forced busing--or he lacks the resolve necessary to control those who pursue it in his name," Tower said. Austin

School Superintendent Jack Davidson put it pithily: "Man in White House speaks with forked tongue."

Still another peculiar circumvention has been proposed by the Dallas school district. After the Supreme Court decision, one educated estimate was that the Dallas district would eventually have to spend $6,000,000 on as many as 500 new buses. Labeling that alternative too time-consuming and expensive, the district advanced what Dallas School Superintendent Nolan Estes blithely described as the "educational innovation of the decade": a $15 million television network that will connect classes between elementary schools in largely segregated neighborhoods.

In an opinion entered last week, U.S. District Judge William M. Taylor Jr. not only bought that extraordinary idea, but also added a few wrinkles of his own. He envisions elementary students being ushered into a special television room daily for a one-hour session, transmitting and receiving lessons to and from a similar class in a school dominated by a different race. Included in this program would be weekly visits between the matching schools. "What better way to start to foster real integration," exclaimed Judge Taylor, "than for a student to be able to say 'Hey, I saw you on television last week.' "

Judge Taylor has a special treat for high school students. He decreed that any student who voluntarily transfers from a high school in which his race is the majority to one in which it is in the minority will be rewarded with a four-day school week.

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