students by their color and bus them across town in order to educate them by set ratios. However, I, along with numerous lawmakers and concerned citizens all over the United States, feel that we should not divide people along racial lines and then allot each group so many percentages.

There are many things wrong with the forcible transfer of children from a nearby school to one across town in order to obtain the proper racial balance. It is, for one thing, a waste of time and money that could better be spent in providing a quality education for both black and white students.

To those of us who are concerned with the education of our children, it is a known fact that our schools already find it necessary to cope with inadequate operating budgets, and now they must plan vast outlays for the purchase and operation of enlarged bus fleets.

This money, I believe, could certainly be used to better the present education program for all children, regardless of color, and this is not a view of whites only, but it is also shared by many of our black leaders.

Mr. William Raspberry, a black columnist for the Washington Post, points out that:

Convoluted efforts to achieve racial balance are not likely to produce educational improvements for the black children on whose behalf they are undertaken. . . in financially strapped school districts throughout the country it makes more sense to spend available resources for improving education than tripling bus fleets in order to furnish every black child with a white seatmate.

The additional funds required for forced busing could be better spent in upgrading our total education system so that each child would have an opportunity to get the best possible education and at the same time attend his neighborhood school.

The money could be used to purchase better teaching materials, to provide for special programs, to increase the teachers salaries or to build new and better school buildings. Yet these needs, under forced busing, must take second place to the need of setting ratios which will achieve racial balance in our schools.

The Supreme Court decision makes it possible for our children to receive a second-rate education by attending a racially balanced school. Is this where our priority lies today? I say to you, Mr. Chairman, and to other members of this committee, the answer to that question must be "No."

Forced busing to achieve racial balance is also a waste of time. It is my strong feeling that the time each child is required to be on a bus, in some cases as much as or more than 2 hours per day, could better be spent either in the classroom or at home, rather than riding clear across town so that he can sit next to someone whose skin is a different color than his own.

Another thing wrong with the forcible transfer of children from a nearby school is the effect this act will have on the children. It is my feeling, which is also shared by literally thousands and thousands and thousands of concerned parents and educators, that requiring children of both races to be transported long hours through congested traffic arteries for many miles to schools remote from their homes is not in the best interest of these young children.

The inconvenience, fatigue, lack of normal recreational time after school, and the necessity of arising at early hours are all incompatible with the schedule and routine which children should maintain. Because of the new schedules imposed by forced busing, in many instances, there can no longer be time for a Boy Scout or Girl Scout meeting after school because school is too far away.

Again, it is many times impossible to participate in the athletic programs of the school because of the distance involved. It is a known fact that the greater the distance between home and school, the less interest there will be in school activities.

So it is evident that the heaviest price of forced busing is being paid by the children who are being forced to ride a bus to a strange school which they do not want to attend. They must leave behind friends and activities that play a major role in their lives in order to achieve some arbitrary, racially balanced school system. Is this fair to these children?

Finally, the forced busing of children across town is an added burden on the taxpayers. Where is the money for all this busing coming from? The answer to that is obvious: from the taxpayers.

Today when taxes are ever increasing, why should we expect the people to shoulder another heavy financial burden in order to pay the cost of forced busing which they strongly oppose in the first place? The taxpayers, who have contributed billions of dollars for our schools, will not continue to support expenditures to implement policies of which they strongly disapprove.

One of my constituents writes:

If busing is done because children cannot get the education they should have, I would agree; but, if it is only to provide a certain mixture of whites and blacks, I think it is absurd . . . with the school systems asking for more funds each year, this added expense is unnecessary.

Forced busing should not be permitted. This is a complete waste of the taxpayers' money, and the people will not stand for such a needless

expense.

Mr. Chairman, there is another fact which I would like to impress on the members of this committee today, and it is that opposition to forced busing does not spring out of deep-seeded prejudices. It is not regional. Parents throughout the country are opposed to the forced busing of children out of their neighborhood schools.

One parent writes to me:

I am writing this letter to protest the proposed busing in Memphis. Let me say first that I am not a Southerner. I was born in Ohio but raised mostly out West. I went to school with Negroes all my life and never felt pushed around because it was by choice for all races.

Secondly, my eight-year-old daughter had two excellent Negro teachers her first and second year in Memphis schools, both of whom she adored and respected. I am trying to impress upon you the fact this is not prejudice speaking.

This gentleman then goes on to say:

But we feel it is wrong when a child lives three blocks away from school and possibly will be bused 45 minutes away to a school she does not want to attend.

Also, one more important factor should be remembered-the majority of the people are opposed to forced busing. This is evident throughout the country. I ask you, who are we to ignore this wish? Let me remind you that Congress must act to prevent forced busing. The majority of the people speak to us in this regard.

In conclusion, I would like to say that I believe in the Constitution, and I believe that it is a valid document; yet, when a few use it to impose their will on the many, then I strongly believe that it is time to amend the Constitution to reflect the wishes of the people. House Joint Resolution 888 will do this. It will return equality to all, regardless of race, creed, or color.

It is my hope that this committee will act favorably so that once again the voice of the majority will be heard and so that this most dangerous threat to our education system will be removed once and

for all.

I appreciate the opportunity to appear before this distinguished subcommittee and I urge you to give favorable consideration to a constitutional amendment to do away with forced busing to achieve racial balance.

Let me take this opportunity to offer my congratulations to each and every one of you for the fine job that you are doing and I am especially appreciative of the fact that you are holding these hearings. Thank you. Mr. Chairman.

Chairman CELLER. Mr. Quillen, it is always a pleasure to have you. We are especially happy to have heard from you on this very, very difficult question. It has been very enlightening and we want to thank you very much, sir.

Mr. QUILLEN. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

Chairman CELLER. Our next witness is the distinguished gentleman from Texas, Graham Purcell.

STATEMENT OF HON. GRAHAM PURCELL, A U.S. REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF TEXAS

Mr. PURCELL. Mr. Chairman, I appreciate this opportunity.

I am going to ask permission to file my statement and not take the time to read it to you.

I am for the legislation that is before you. I am against busing and I am in full agreement with what those witnesses are proposing to you. So with your permission, Mr. Chairman, I will file my statement and not take the time of the committee to read it.

Chairman CELLER. Thank you.

We will file your statement, sir, and thank you very much for your representations.

(The statement referred to follows:)

STATEMENT OF HON. GRAHAM PURCELL, A U.S. REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF TEXAS

Mr. Chairman, the topic of concern, the busing of schoolchildren to balance racially-on an experimental level-the attendance throughout whole school districts, has generated more confusion, more fear, and more mistrust of the Federal government than any issue in recent memory. It is the mandatory obligation of this collective body of the Representatives of the people to still this confusion, calm this fear, and dispel this mistrust. The furor surrounding the busing issue has scarred the complexion of the real problem to the point where it is no longer the issue at hand.

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee, you have heard colleagues sit where I am sitting and explain at length that this question is not a racial question; rather, they say, it is a question of freedom. I say it is a question of both. We must realize that at issue in these hearings is a question which has its foundation rooted in the law of this Nation which states that "to separate

children in grade and high schools from others of similar age and qualifications solely because of their race generated a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community." The landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education further stated that forced segregation of schoolchildren affected their motivation to learn.

It was precisely this kind of segregation which was attacked in that 1954 decision. Since 1954 the Courts have not been alone in fighting the lingering problems of racial segregation. We turned the corner on segregation well back in the 1960's. Racial restrictions in housing have been eliminated, and there has been genuine progress in wiping out the discrimination which for so many decades prevented black Americans from sharing the job and other economic opportunities of our country.

Until this busing scheme, though, no one was forced to attend one public facility over another; certainly convenience and traditional neighborhood affiliations have dictated-exactly as they should-the choice of schools. The answer to what's left of that 1954 dilemma is simply to quit skimping on money for neighborhood schools which are not of the same caliber as the others in a given community. Quite obviously, if equal education for all is to be our objective, and it must, then we must provide equal facilities. Carting children hither and yon like so many crates of cabbage doesn't change a system of unequal facilities one bit.

If voluntary integration is our objective, and I agree that it should be, then we must go beyond providing merely equal facilities. Instead, two decades later, Federal officials have struck and insisted upon the notion that forcefully uprooting American schoolchildren from their familiar neighborhood schools and sending them rattling off across town to strange areas is exactly what the Court had prescribed. HEW officials seem to insist that this scheme and this scheme alone will satisfy the Supreme Court mandate.

But no thought seems to be given to the fact that at hand is not the same problem the Supreme Court attacked. We are not confronting the forced segregation of community facilities. We are confronting the inequality of community facilities.

Unlike those cloistered officials, I say there are alternatives to providing an absolutely equal and racially integrated education to the children of this country which can be had without yanking them out of their home surroundings and freighting them like so many laundry bags back and forth across their communities. If there are bad schools in any part of any American townI ask why should any children, black or white be forced to continue to receive. their education there? It makes the problem no better that a certain percentage of black children and a certain percentage of white children receive one quantum of education while another percentage of each receives another quantum of a better education-all within the same school system.

We should provide "magnet" facilities-for examples, schools with such excellent full-time programs and supplementary services that they attract students from a wide geographical area. Unusual curricula, designed to meet specialized needs, could provide powerful incentives. Through such far-sighted programs our schools and communities could become genuinely, rather than artificially, integrated

On at least seven occasions Congress has enacted legislation to prohibit Federal officials from requiring busing "in order to achieve racial balance." The first such provision was contained in the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Similar prohibitions have been included in the 1966 and 1967 amendments to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 and in the Labor and Health, Education, and Welfare Appropriations Acts for fiscal 1968, 1970, and 1971. Recently, the House amended the Higher Education Act in a further effort to put a halt to busing.

I have fully supported every one of these provisions and amendments. Additionally. I went to the floor of the House in the fall of 1970 to discuss this issue. At that time I outlined many of the same things I have said here this morning. Other Members have spent similar time on this issue. We are as frustrated at our efforts as American parents are at this imposition from a Federal government which no one can blame them for mistrusting.

Mr. Chairman, for the reasons which I have outlined I introduced House Joint Resolution 854 last September. Unlike many similar proposed amendments to the Constitution which would serve only to prohibit the use of busing to achieve racial balance throughout community school systems, my Amend

ment would additionally insist upon the immediate equalization of all the schools within a given city or town. I am convinced we must not only put a stop to the HEW sociological experimentation, but we must also provide the means for a viable alternative to accomplish what is truly our objective-an education unparalleled in the world which is available to every last child in the United States.

We have an obligation to the children, and we have an obligation to the very bedrock notion of a phrase that has been so caught up in the furor over busing that it has almost lost its relevance freedom of choice. It is not a trite phrase, Mr. Chairman. Neither is it a racial euphemism. It is a cornerstone of life for everyone born an American and it must not be shoved into obscurity by what Winston Churchill once called "the lamps of perverted science"-in this case. perverted social science.

This Committee must act favorably upon a Resolution which will meet all of the objectives which we must meet. Our action is overdue. None of our efforts to date have driven home to the HEW and other Administration officials the fact that Americans, regardless of race, want no part of a trumped-up scheme which will scatter their children across whole cities on a daily basis. Chairman CELLER. Our next witness is the distinguished gentleman from Alabama, Hon. Tom Bevill.

STATEMENT OF HON. TOM BEVILL, A U.S. REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF ALABAMA

Mr. BEVILL. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to thank you for giving me this opportunity to appear before this committee today and to express my support for House Joint Resolution 620.

In the light of the recent court decision in the Richmond case. I feel that we must proceed with all possible speed in considering this proposed constitutional amendment to prohibit the forced busing of schoolchildren to achieve a racial balance.

You have already heard many arguments favoring such an amendment and arguments opposing it. And, you have heard various other proposals to stop busing by legislative acts and other means.

It is my contention, Mr. Chairman, that these other proposals have been tried and failed. They simply are ignored or bypassed by those who would have us continue this senseless busing.

The very foundation of our educational system is being shaken. Throughout the land there is upheaval. There is distrust and in some cases there is violence. Most of it has been brought on by forced busing, taking children from their neighborhoods and transporting them long distances to schools they do not wish to attend.

Forced busing to achieve a racial balance in our school has, in my judgment, significantly lowered the quality of education in our Nation. It has forced our educators to lower their goals; to change procedures; to adjust to unfamiliar patterns and programs.

The orderly process of education has been frustrated and often disrupted. Teachers have been forced to abandon their teaching duties in order to act as disciplinarians and guards to preserve the peace.

We should be spending the money we are currently spending on busing to improve our schools-all of our schools so that every child, regardless of his race, creed, or color would have the opportunity to receive a good education.

Recent decisions made by Federal courts have broken the longstanding tradition of local school boards, parents, and the community being responsible for local schools. These decisions are contrary to the wishes of the great majority of the people of this Nation.