Quote of the Day – Plus – Busing in Jefferson County

“Is the student assignment plan working? No, it is not.”

Marty Pollio, Superintendent, Jefferson County Public Schools

(As quoted in the Louisville Courier-Journal’s “Louisville’s desegregation myth: How a busing plan hurt Black communities it aimed to help” on February 3, 2021. Subscriber access version online here)

The Plus

This succinct and very much on target comment from someone obviously highly involved with the student assignment plan, often just referred to as the busing operation, in Louisville’s schools gets to the heart of the issue in about as forthright a way as possible.

The JCPS busing program isn’t working. Period.

This is a further amplification of concerns we’ve been voicing since we started our Blacks Falling Through Gaps reports back in 2012. Read the latest update, “FALLING BEHIND, Blacks Falling Through Gaps in Louisville’s Schools, A 2020 Update, here.

As we summarized in our 2020 report:

“Clearly, if busing were going to work, it should have happened by now. The data in this update show that current performance remains seriously unacceptable, and it’s time for serious changes.”

Obviously, Dr. Pollio and the Courier editor who chose the title for the paper’s lead story on busing now agree.