Federal Help May Lighten Busing Costs

A bill to provide federal aid for the busing of students from racially im-balanced cities to neighboring suburbs may be introduced in the next session of Congress, Thomas F. Pettigrew, assistant professor of Social Psychology, said last night.

"There's serious support for the bill being voiced in Washington and serious consideration being given on the part of high administration planners," Pettigrew said. He predicted that the measure, if passed, could become "a very powerful tool" for fighting de facto segregation.

The bill, Pettigrew said, would remove one of the biggest stumbling blocks to busing students out of large cities--the amount of money a city would remove by busing them. Most state aid to city school systems takes the form of a pupil attendance grant, which would be produced if the city sent students to the suburbs.

Also under consideration, he added, is a much stronger bill that would permit the federal government to cut off aid to a city or a suburb that refused to take part in such a busing plan.

A report submitted by Pettigrew to a White House conference last summer concludes that cities like Boston may continue to have segregated and inadequate schools unless they can send some students elsewhere.

"Urban desegregation and educational upgrading cannot long remain the sole responsibility of inner school systems," the report states. "In some cases, the central city is beginning to run out of while children in its public schools."

A few of Boston's suburbs have already said they would be interested in such a regional plan, Pettigrew noted yesterday. But, of course, Boston may refuse to cooperate he added. "This is the sort of having federal legislation could prevent."