The end of busing marks the end of an era

Over the next few years, Norfolk will likely decide what - finally - to do about busing students for racial balance, a morning and afternoon legacy of an ugly time in this city.

It's part of a conversation, according to Pilot writer Amy Jeter, about school zones at the city's high schools. Officials say they probably need to be changed to better use space and fuel. But, almost inevitably, those changes will also affect the racial balance in the city's high schools.

City leaders are already exhibiting an abundance of caution, as citizens might expect on a subject that has been fraught with tension for almost 40 years.

"It's not going to happen overnight," said School Board Chairman Barry Bishop. "People won't wake up one day and just read in the paper, 'These are the attendance zones,' and they never had the opportunity to vet them or talk about it."

Divisions are always well-served by deliberation when they change which schools children attend. A decision to end a painful legacy of the days of integration even more so.

The city began busing in 1970; it ended it for elementary students in 1986 and for middle students in 2001. The time seems to be rapidly approaching for ending it entirely.

Part of that is the passage of years - 2008 is a different time in Norfolk than were the 1960s and 1970s. That's not to say that we are a colorblind society; but almost everyone agrees now on that goal and admits that it is a personal failing to fall short.

Further, race no longer qualifies or disqualifies anyone for political office, or for high positions in the city administration, or in the school division.

Over the years, too, the schools have found less onerous ways of mixing up the student body - magnet programs and the like - which have the additional benefit of boosting academics and helping to keep children from moving to specialized programs elsewhere.

Is it perfect? No. Has the division achieved racial balance in every school? No. But that shouldn't be the goal. Schools should represent the diversity of the community, but it is most important that they teach children well.

Norfolk's teachers have made enormous strides in recent years in educating children. Now - perhaps - the time has come for the school division itself to teach a lesson.

After all, if the city's institutions don't begin moving past the racial divisions that defined Norfolk for so many years, the people never will.