School busing in Boston is a four-letter word, a phrase often spewed as a profanity whenever the subject of the city’s schools comes up in conversations, which is to say all the time.
Going back to the 1970s, when the city exploded into a race and class war over the yellow beasts rumbling through the neighborhoods, school busing has been blamed for the demise of the city’s educational system, the flight of middle-class families to the suburbs, and the drain on taxpayer dollars all in an effort to satisfy the need to improve the schools in an equitable fashion.