Is it the Busing or the Blacks?

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Abstract
This study compares racial factors and the policy costs of school desegregation in influencing white student withdrawal in two large school districts-Los Angeles, California, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Mandatory reassignments produce predictably large school-loss rates that can be used to estimate the interracial exposure of proposed alternative desegregation plans. On average, 55% of the white students reassigned to schools above 90% minority will not enroll. The results of multiple regression analysis indicate, however, that the real costs of school desegregation-reassignment, the busing distance, a decline in average achievement and social class-are at least as important as the percentage minority of the student body in predicting white withdrawal.