Word: metco
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Realizing that school integration will not happen on its own, some have tried to artificially speed the process to benefit both urban and suburban students. The Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity (Metco) buses approximately 3,300 minority students from Boston and Springfield into the mostly-white suburbs surrounding the city. Begun in 1966, Metco now has a waiting list of 15,000 students, many of whom were placed on the list by their parents soon after they were born in order to reserve a spot...
...massive waiting list notwithstanding, Metco almost suffered a devastating budget cut this year. The Ways and Means Committee of the Massachusetts House of Representatives planned to slash the program’s funds by 40 percent, which would have put both urban and suburban school districts between a rock and a hard place. Suburban schools would have faced the choice of sending hundreds of Metco students back to Boston this fall—away from their classmates and teachers—or covering the students’ expenses completely out of their own pocket. Boston and Springfield would have struggled...
Even with the restored funding, there have been worries that Metco’s cost to suburban school districts might erode its support. Schools receive only $2,880 per Metco student, whereas the average per-pupil expenditure in Massachusetts is over $7,000. But on the contrary, while suburban participation has remained steady overall, the town of Bedford is significantly increasing its Metco enrollment for the coming year, from 46 to approximately 70 students...
...Have some gonads," said Jean McGuire, director of the region-wide METCO busing program. "Represent the constituency that is the Boston schools. Do not capitulate to this fraudulent tactic...
Twenty percent said that they would most likely leave Boston if METCO were unavailable...