School Assignment Policy:

The Boston Public School System previously used a zoning plan in which racial caps were set for every school. A bussing system was implemented to transport students from other areas of town to fulfill racial quotas.  This policy had been in place since 1974, after a ruling by U.S. District Court Judge W. Arthur Garrity Jr.  His reasoning was that the zoning policy in place at the time was intended to segregate black students into schools that were below standard, and that a policy was necessary to enable desegregation. 

Contention arose over the new racial quota system as soon as it was adopted. Areas of controversy included the large number of minorities in the city, which grew to 85%.  There were also fears that using race as a factor to determine what school a child would attend could potentially attract a law suit.  For these reasons, in 1999 the Boston School Board officially dropped race as a deciding factor over what school a child would attend.  What remained in Boston’s school assignment policy was the idea of busing.

Since 1999, a policy of “controlled choice” in school assignment has been implemented led by Superintendent Thomas Payzant. In this plan 50% of student population can attend their neighborhood school, while the other 50% is bused to another school.  The school a child may attend is determined by a lottery, in which residents submit their top choices and are given are given an opportunity for their child’s enrollment at their neighborhood school at random.  Race no longer plays any part in the zoning process.

This school assignment policy has been especially unpopular in middle to upper class neighborhoods where the majority of residents are white.  It is in these areas that some of the most prestigious schools lie.  Many of the area residents are angered over the fact that their child may not enjoy the benefits of attending their neighborhood school, and must be bused to another school.  Opponents of the busing program cite the mounting transportation costs, which surface at $60 million.  They argue that this money could be used to improve the school district overall.

Supporters of the school assignment policy contend that setting aside all seats for neighborhood children would create racial isolation and imbalance.  More minorities would be forced to attend schools that are older and in the inner city.  This would lead to inherent injustices. 

To settle the debate, the school board is having open forums where residents have the opportunity to voice their opinion over this issue.  A series of eight forums are planned in different areas of the city, ending in May. 

DNC Minority Contracts:

The Democratic National Convention is to be held in Boston in July 2004, creating a great opportunity for business owners to cash in on the huge event.  Mayor Thomas M. Menino vowed to showcase a “diverse city before the eyes of the nation,” and he pledged that, “much of the convention’s bounty would go to minority businesses”. The minority vote is crucial for the Democratic Party, which counts on minorities as unwavering supporters. Contracting minority-owned firms would seem to be within the ideology of this party.  For these reasons, many minorities expected to do big business with the Democratic convention planners.  Many complain that this has not been the case so far.

Anger has arisen among some who say that the convention planners have not done enough to ensure they are doing a significant portion of their business with minorities.  A “vendor directory” was set up by the Boston host committee to help convention planners find businesses owned by minorities and women.  However, many of the city’s minority leaders declare the convention planners do most of their business with white-owned firms, which are not in the directory.

Horace Small of the Union of Minority Neighborhoods in Roxbury stated it is “offensive” that the majority of the spending done in the early stages of planning has gone to non-minority owned firms.  In contrast to this Convention Chief Executive Rod O’Conner said that the democrats have, “gone beyond a good-faith effort” in doing business with minorities.  He noted that one of the primary architectural firms hired was black-owned.  This is not compensation for many leaders, who claim that is not going far enough.

Redistricting Plan:

Minority advocates have expressed strong disapproval with a redistricting plan for Boston’s 17 legislative districts.  The plan, supported by Massachusetts House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran, claimed that it would increase the number of African American seats.  Many say the plan hurts minority representation, however.

Changes to the districting plan are necessary because of a finding by the U.S. District Court, which found that the House’s 2001 map unlawfully deprived blacks of equal voting opportunities, and favored protecting incumbents.  Under this plan, minorities make up a majority in five out of the seventeen districts.  In the new plan, Finneran promised to increase the number to at least six. 

Lawyers for minority rights denounced the new House plan as having “fatal flaws”, saying it “continues the practice of subordinating racial fairness to incumbency protection.”  A new plan, which was submitted February 24^{th 2004}, was rejected. 

Racial Profiling:

According to a recent study, many areas of Massachusetts have problems with disproportionately ticketing minority drivers.  The area of greatest concern, Milton, is just south of Boston.  There, it was found that blacks were issued 58% of the tickets, while they make up only 16% of the drivers in the area.  The disparities carry over into Boston as well, however.  Minorities there received about 50% of the tickets, while they make up 33% of the driving population.

 The racial profiling state task force, composed of police officials, minority advocates and civil liberties groups, has not yet set a limit on the level of disparity which should be seen as a concern.  If the current level is lowered ten percentage points, the Boston Police Department will be subject to a large amount of scrutiny. The director of the institute that carried out the study, Jack McDevitt, said that “the goal here is to have police departments and communities discuss whether the level of disparity is explainable.”

In order to avoid any unwanted attention, interim police commissioner James M. Hussey issued guidelines that strongly encourage officers to write tickets instead of warnings to drivers who commit “high priority violations”, such as speeding more than 10 miles over the speed limit, or running a stop sign or red light.  The intention is to lessen the chance that officers are injecting bias when deciding which drivers to issue tickets.

Sources

Lewis, Raphael and Matthew Rodriguez. “Finneran Defends New Redistricting Plan.” Boston Gobe. 19 Mar. 2004: B4.

 Reed, Keith.  “Minority Firms Struggled for 2004 Party Contracts.”  Boston Globe. 28 Mar. 2004: D1.

 Klein, Rick.  “Minorities Say Convention Relying on White-Owned Firms.” BostonGlobe.  5 Feb. 2004, third edition: B7.

Estes, Andrea and Kevin Jay.  “DNC Deal to Include 3 Black Businesses.” BostonGlobe. 29 Jan. 2004, third edition: B1.

Lawrence, J.M. “Fed. Judge Backs Hub Student Placement; ‘Controlled Choice’ Ok’d.’’’ Boston Herald.  24 Apr. 2004: 3.

 Tench, Megan.  “Forum Supports Neighborhood Schools.” Boston Globe. 13 Jan. 2004, third edition: B2.

 Vaishnav, Anand. “On Stand, Payzant Denies Racial Bias in School Assignments.” Boston Globe.  12 Feb. 2003, third edition: B6.

Dedman, Bill.  “Profiling Study Cites Dozens of Locales.” Boston Globe. 21 Jan. 2004, third edition: A1.

 Dedman, Bill.  “Boston Police to Get Tough on Tickets: Racial Profiling Spurs Plans toLimit Warnings.” Boston Globe. 17 Jan. 2004: B1.

Picture Sources:

www.bostonkids.org

www.2004dnc.com

www.uwec.edu/freitard/groupandminority/SanAntonio/index.htm

Created by Andrew Fitzpatrick, Jen Frisque, Sara Heitzinger, and Becky Johnson for Dr. Rodd Freitag's POLS 350 Group and Minority Politics class

Last Updated: Thursday April 29, 2004