Editing 78-10-A7 (section)

=== Transcript ===
The other day when I picked up my local Los Angeles newspaper,
I saw a headline referring to the court ordered school busing program
scheduled to begin in September. I thought my eyes were playing
tricks. The busing scheme, it seems, will involve bus rides of up to
90 minutes each way every day for some of the youngsters. That's three
hours a day on a bus for a child, just to satisfy some federal judge's
notion of how to achieve equal education. It sounds more like the
Mad Hatter's Tea Party.

Federal judges still seem to be stuck on the notion that rigid
forced busing schemes which disrupt family and neighborhood life (not
to mention wasting thousands of gallons of gasoline and large numbers
of tax dollars) are somehow the way to solve the problem. Yet, in
case after case, such schemes have proved impractical, counterproductive
and divisive. Meanwhile, there have been a variety of
innovations designed to improve and equalize educational opportunities--
such things as "magnet" schools, academic parks, open enrollment and
the flexible voucher system. Increasingly in recent years, public
opinion has been running strongly against compulsory busing. Judges,
however, are insulated against public opinion. When they legislate,
as they are doing in implementing and overseeing forced busing
schemes, they can upend people's daily lives without answering to
anyone.

There is a remedy that is coming closer to fulfillment. Back in
1975 a freshman Congressman, Representative Ron Mottl, Democrat of
Ohio, introduced a Constitutional amendment to abolish forced school
busing as a means of achieving racial integration. Representative
Don Edwards of California, also a Democrat and chairman of the House
Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional Rights, refused to hold
hearings on the bill. Mottl then tried to get a discharge petition,
the only other way he could get his bill to the floor. He needed
a majority of signatures--218; he got only 17.

Early last year, Congressman Mottl tried again. His bill has
two key provisions: One says "No student shall be compelled to
attend public school other than the one nearest his residence". The
other says, "The Congress shall have the power to enforce by appropriate
legislation the provisions of this article; and to insure equal 
educational opportunities for all students wherever located".

Edwards again refused to hold hearings and, along with Congressman
 Peter Rodino, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, he persuaded
10 members to take their names off the Mottl petition. Still, by
this summer, a net total of 201 members of the House have signed it,
just 17 short of the needed number. The signers are about evenly
divided between Democrats and Republicans, though individual names
are not made public while a petition is being circulated.

Congressman Mottl believes that if he can get his petition to
the floor of the house it will pass and also has a good chance in the
Senate. He says, "There is growing sentiment in Congress that
compulsory busing just hasn't worked; that it is a case of many
minuses and no plusses."

This is Ronald Reagan.

Thanks for listening.
</TD>
<TD WIDTH="10%" ROWSPAN="2">&nbsp;</TD>
<TD VALIGN="TOP" HEIGHT="250">