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Born before Boston's highly charged, widely publicized struggle
over court-ordered busing for desegregation, the state-financed,
voluntary busing METCO (Metropolitan Council For Educational Opportunity)
program was created to send inner-city students to suburban schools
for greater opportunity and a better education.
When METCO buses started rolling in Boston in 1974, 60 percent of
the city's public schools were white. Today, 82 percent of Bostonís
public school students are of color, with schools growing increasingly
overcrowded and lacking resources.
But for some, the dream of obtaining access to quality schools has
remained alive.
Over the years, METCO has expanded to offer some 3,200 children
from Boston an education in high-performing suburban schools.
Getting up before dawn to travel a great distance to the suburb
of Lincoln is an admitted hardship to Tamara Brooks who began making
the trip when she was just in kindergarten. Now a high school student,
16 year old Tamara appreciates the opportunity and describes herself
as “one in a million.” The METCO program has a waiting
list of 17,000 — 28 percent of the Boston school population.
But after decades of being the national model for voluntary school
integration, METCO is drawing attacks from Lincoln parents and community
leaders who, in hard fiscal times, would rather spend funds on improving
resources for neighborhood students. The argument divided the town
and conjured memories of Brown as the community weighed the
benefits of integration. Supporters fear that abandoning the METCO
program in Lincoln could reverberate throughout Boston's other participating
suburbs and turn back the clock on school diversity.
For more information about the METCO program:
www.metcoinc.org
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