Arne Duncan, U.S. Secretary of Education, joined others in criticizing North Carolina’s largest school district, located in Wake County, for ending its busing for diversity program. Hispanics are the second largest minority in the county after African-Americans.
The decades-old program was instituted to allow children in more distressed community access to a better education by busing them to schools not in their district and to provide those school with racial diversity. Under this program some 140,000 students were bused and a greater socio-economic balance was being achieved throughout the district.
The Office for Civil Rights is investigating the decision urged in great part by the NCAAP and other minority organizations.
