School Board Chief Calls Busing the Wrong Path to Racial Balance

Beauchamp Believes Her System's Current Transfer Program Is Superior

After last week's 5 to 4 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court limiting the use of race in school integration plans, the question was put to Prince William School Board Chairman Lucy S. Beauchamp: Should the county use more aggressive steps to achieve racial balance in schools -- like busing minorities into whiter schools and vice versa -- like the programs in Seattle and Louisville?

Her answer was no. Beauchamp (At Large) said that Prince William's current system allowing any student to transfer to any high school for a specialty program works better than one forced on students and parents. "I have always believed if a parent and student choose a school, then their chances of success are much, much greater," Beauchamp said. "There's more buy-in."

Even though Prince William does not have the same kind of integration plans that the Supreme Court considered, the school system does use race and economic backgrounds as factors when approving school boundaries.

Last year, a new policy was approved that allowed boundary committees, made up of members of the public, to consider potential demographic factors when voting on boundary recommendations to the School Board.

Beauchamp said the policy was approved to settle any confusion among committee members who were not sure whether they could consider the percentage of minorities and students receiving free or reduced-price lunches when drawing boundaries.

"Some of the people on the committee were saying afterward they didn't feel they had the right because it wasn't officially part of the criteria," said Beauchamp, who spent Thursday night and Friday morning scrutinizing the court's opinion. "It didn't pop up a lot, but enough, where we felt like we needed to better define the criteria the committees are supposed to use."

The school system has never considered the kinds of plans used in Louisville or Seattle, Beauchamp said, because mandatory busing does not naturally push students to perform better in schools. In Prince William, where high schools and middle schools have specialty programs, students frequently transfer outside their boundaries, but only because they want to specialize in science, the arts or a specific college-level academic program available at certain schools.

Still, the county does have schools with lopsided demographics and performance levels, according to the most recently available data. At Brentsville District High School in Nokesville, about 78 percent of the students are white, and only 4 percent are economically disadvantaged. The average SAT score is 1573 out of a possible 2400. At Freedom High School in Woodbridge, about 20 percent of the students are white, and 42.5 percent are considered economically disadvantaged; the average SAT score is 1288.

Beauchamp said that the economic status of the student body at a particular school is just as important, if not more important, than the racial demographic of the population. "You want every school to have the correct resources and have all the advantages they can," she said.

In a county with a growing population that is constantly building schools, Beauchamp said the most important criterion in drawing a boundary is to make sure a new school is not at or over capacity within the first years after it opens.

"If any emphasis is given, it should be on the percentage of school utilization," she said. "If a school has a capacity of 2,000, then we aim to have 90 percent filled. What we don't want to happen is to have one school open at 60 percent, and another at 120 percent."