Busing No Way To Fix NYC's School Diversity Problem: Chancellor

NEW YORK — Chancellor Richard Carranza on Wednesday ruled out busing as a strategy for tackling his signature issue of segregation in New York City schools.

As his first full school year leading the nation's largest public school system got underway, Carranza was asked whether he thought the decades-old tactic of transporting students to different schools could help make them more diverse.

Carranza dismissed the idea and endorsed Mayor Bill de Blasio's so-called Equity and Excellence Agenda as a way to improve education and "empower communities."

"I don’t think it’s the kind of thing that we want in our city," Carranza said during a news conference at P.S. 377 in Queens. "What we do want to do is continue to double down on the Equity and Excellence investments. We want to implement with fidelity."

The practice of busing students to desegregate schools dates to the mid-20th century. It helped implement integration after the Supreme Court ruled against school segregation in 1954, though not without controversy and demographic change in many large districts, according to a 2016 Brookings Institution article.

De Blasio, a Democrat, is also a skeptic. In a New York Times interview this spring, the Massachusetts-raised mayor cited the fierce opposition to Boston's busing plan in the 1970s as a basis for his doubts.

"Busing to me creates a whole host of problems and also suggests that we’re not in the work of trying to improve every school," de Blasio said Wednesday. "It literally cuts against the goal."

Carranza's rejection of busing came amid scattered efforts to diversify schools around the city.

A plan to set aside seats for low-performing students at high-performing middle schools in the Upper West Side's District 3 is set to take effect next year. And a decision on a similar proposal in Brooklyn's District 15 is expected this week, Carranza said Tuesday.

Some of those plans have sparked intense debate. But Carranza said people across the city are "enthusiastic" about tackling diversity issues.

"That gives me great hope, that New Yorkers are the New Yorkers that I always imagined New Yorkers to be — passionate and wanting to do the right thing," said Carranza, who came to New York from Houston.

Carranza has spoken bluntly about how deep segregation runs in New York City's public schools. He recently said the city has "the most segregated school system" he's ever seen and has questioned the use of academic screening, according to Politico New York. He and de Blasio have also championed a controversial plan to diversify the elite specialized high schools.

The mayor, on the other hand, has used more subtle terms, casting segregation as a consequence of broader structural racism while emphasizing the need to also improve schools across the board.

But Carranza voiced full-throated support for de Blasio's education agenda in his discussion of busing, calling it a "powerful vision for our city." The Equity and Excellence initiatives include efforts to get all students reading at grade level by the end of second grade, college-access programs, and expansions of Advanced Placement courses and computer science lessons.

"As we empower our communities to have their voices come to the table I think you’re going to see some innovative programming happening in ... community school districts all across the city," Carranza said.

(Lead image: Chancellor Richard Carranza, left, and Mayor Bill de Blasio joined students at P.S. 377 for the first day of school on Wednesday. Photo by Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)