A Step Backward

There has been no longer or more bitter social and political struggle in contemporary America than the 18-year fight to eliminate racially segregated schools. Last week, riding willingly with the swelling popular tide of emotion against busing, the U.S. Senate gave new hope to all those who oppose the mixing of whites and blacks in classrooms, especially if it means transporting their children out of their neighborhoods. The Senate passed an amendment to an education bill intended to strip the federal courts of all power to order busing for such a purpose.

It was only a skirmish in the accelerating war over busing and, since 17 Senators were absent, the Senate position could be altered when the issue is reconsidered with an expected fuller attendance this week. But with President Nixon almost certain to propose antibusing measures of his own, the nation could be on the verge of a major retreat on school integration. However unsatisfactory and sometimes traumatic busing may be, the hard truth remains that until neighborhoods integrate, some transportation of pupils is necessary to achieve racially mixed schools.

Federal Funds. After a flurry of amendments and confusing votes, the situation in the Senate had become a parliamentarian's nightmare. But the key result was that the antibusing forces had passed, 43 to 40, an amendment sponsored by Michigan Republican Robert Griffin, which so directly challenges the authority of the courts that even he concedes that it is probably unconstitutional. Yet Griffin, who is up for re-election and whose state is aroused over busing orders in some of its major cities, said his aim was to influence the Supreme Court as it hears appeals against busing plans ordered by the lower courts. Griffin's amendment also prohibits federal authorities from withholding educational funds as a means of pressuring school districts into busing children. This is in apparent conflict with the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits the granting of federal funds to districts that practice discrimination.

Legal Appeals. Earlier in the tangled procedure, the Senate had adopted by a decisive margin a far milder antibusing amendment proposed by Republican Leader Hugh Scott and Democratic Leader Mike Mansfield. Offered primarily to stave off the harsh Griffin measure, and to close out the possibility of a constitutional amendment banning busing, it was supported by a number of civil rights liberals. The amendment prevents the use of any federal funds for racial busing unless local school districts request the money--but it would not affect court orders requiring districts to bus. The amendment also delays the execution of any court order requiring the busing of children across school district lines, as in the controversial Richmond, Va., decision, until all legal appeals have been heard, or until July 1, 1973 --which is conveniently past the next election. Another provision would prevent any federal agency, but not the courts, from requiring the busing of any child into a school where his education would be considered inferior to that provided in his home district. This was clearly aimed at protecting suburban children against being sent to big-city ghetto schools. It would have no effect on the more common practice of transporting black children into the suburbs.

Both the Griffin and Scott-Mansfield amendments are, at least momentarily, part of the Senate bill. If the bill is finally approved, the provisions would have to be compromised in conference committee with the House bill, which includes a flat ban against the use of federal funds for busing. The final bill might well be of doubtful constitutionality requiring long litigation.

As Administration proposals also wind through the Congress, the legal situation would remain confused. But already it was clear, protested Democratic Senator Abraham Ribicoff, that even the mild Scott-Mansfield amendment "serves public notice that we have given up the struggle to end discrimination." Ribicoff's own proposal has been to insist that all school districts, North and South, be racially balanced within ten years--which would require either massive busing or, as Ribicoff prefers, radically altered neighborhoods.

Outside the Senate, other voices were being raised against the antibusing trend. United Auto Workers President Leonard Woodcock charged that Senators, Congressmen and even those "in more exalted political office" (meaning Nixon) were using the busing issue to "polarize races in the hope of selfish political gain." New York's Mayor John Lindsay further endangered his remote presidential chances by telling Florida legislators: "I am for busing because it is often the only way to integrate our schools --and because the alternative, perpetual racial segregation, is far worse." Florida's bold Governor Reubin Askew freely conceded that 90% of his state's voters may favor a state antibusing referendum on the March 14 ballot, but that he would oppose it "as forcefully as I know how. It's time we told the rest of the nation that we aren't caught up in the mania to stop busing at any cost, that we're trying to mature politically down here and that we know the real issues when we see them."

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