1961 US Commission on Civil Rights Report Book 2 - University of ...

classes and school, attend the school serving his community. However,
as has always been the practice, a parent may request the assignment
of his child, regardless of what his race or creed may be, to
any public school having appropriate grades of courses, provided
that that school after enrolling the children of its community has
adequate accommodations for pupils from outside. In Philadelphia
only 5,000 pupils, approximately, out of 245,000 are attending
schools outside their home boundaries and the majority of these are
Negro children.
It has been stated that the maintenance of open boundaries for
some schools and long-standing rule of optional enrollment at such
schools interfere with the integration process. In a limited number
of cases this may be true. In all probability, the converse is true in
most cases and to a much greater degree.
Suit was filed against the Philadelphia School Board on June 7, <strong>1961</strong>, by
parents of Negro children charging, among other things, discrimination
resulting from the transfer policy. 37
New York City took the lead in using the transfer technique to
achieve a better racial distribution of pupils and a better utilization of
facilities. This was done effective in September 1960 by authorizing
transfers from 21 junior or senior high schools with a heavy concentration
of Negro and Puerto Rican students to 28 other schools with a
predominantly white enrollment filled to less than 90 percent of capacity.
Although about 3,000 students were eligible to change, only 393 did so 88
at the opening of the school year. Late announcement of the program
and transportation difficulties may account for the small number taking
advantage of the opportunity. 39
The policy was extended effective in September <strong>1961</strong> to the second,
third, and fourth grades of 93 predominantly Negro and Puerto Rican
schools from which students may apply for some 15,000 empty places in
124 schools with predominantly white enrollments. The city will provide
transportation for all children selecting a school more than a mile
from home. It is reported that some 3,000 elementary school children
have been granted transfers. 40 An additional 2,500 pupils who will
enter junior high in the fall have also had transfers approved. 41
The New York City pattern of overcrowded schools in areas inhabited
by minority groups—and unfilled classrooms in outlying, predominantly
white communities—is not unique. Indeed housing and related studies
indicate that this is quite common in our cities. Where it exists the
transfer of pupils from crowded to under-utilized schools at a distance is
more effective than rezoning as a method of equalizing school loads.
But when the transfer device is used to desegregate, as well as to relieve
overcrowding, it raises constitutional problems. The announced purpose
of the New York City plan, for example, was to give "parents of pupils
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