PUBLIC SCHOOLS Another First for Massachusetts

Massachusetts likes to remind its sister states that it is first in several educational fields. Last week in the Statehouse atop Beacon Hill, Republican Governor John Volpe boasted about some of those historical attainments: first public school (1635), first U.S. college (1636), first state board of education (1837), first state teacher-training college (1839), first compulsory school attendance law (1852). Then he proudly signed a bill making Massachusetts the first state to ban de facto school segregation.

Build or Bus. The bill survived three months of acrid debate in the legislature, and is certain to create even more bitter controversy if lawmakers in other states try to use it as a model. It declares that any school is "racially imbalanced" if more than 50% of the enrollment is nonwhite (but not vice versa), and calls for an annual head count to check the balance. Where an imbalance exists, local school authorities must devise plans to correct it. If they fail to do so, the state not only can, but must cut off state aid to that district.

A district with such an imbalanced school can either redraw its lines to break up neighborhood racial pockets, or build more schools, or bus kids to other schools. A school with a 52% Negro enrollment, for example, could bus enough Negro students to another school to get down to the 50% level, or it could bring in a balancing number of white students, or do a little of both. No family, however, can be compelled to have its children transported out of their neighborhood if the parents object in writing. To help districts expand facilities to correct an imbalance, the state will pay 65% -instead of the usual 40%of construction costs.

A Step in the Drive. The law was proposed in various forms by both Republicans and Democrats, but it was opposed most vociferously by a Democratic bloc of legislators from Boston, the city at which it is mainly aimed. "This bill," cried Boston Democratic Representative Paul Murphy, "is one of the most dangerous pieces of legislation ever considered by this House!"

On the other hand, the state's Republican Attorney General Edward Brooke, a Negro, called the legislation a "dramatic and heartening" step in the drive to "ensure equality in education." Still, the law may have to be harshly applied in Boston, where more than 50% of the enrollment in 45 schools is nonwhite. The city's governing public school committee has refused to admit that segregation exists in its schools. Its chairman, Mrs. Louise Day Hicks, declared last week that "racial imbalance in itself is not educationally harmful." Rather than bus kids, Mrs. Hicks would prefer to get along without state aid.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.