Readers make arguments for busing

It brings back memories of those good old days when my children attended Denver Public Schools, and it’s hard to believe little has changed 50 years later.

My daughter was attending Swansea, located at 47th and Columbine. Our home was located off Hampden and Yosemite, and when people would chastise me for remaining in an area that required busing, my response was always positive about the education my children were receiving.

I firmly believed, wearing my rose-colored glasses, that all children were entitled to a good education, so I stood by my principles and continued sending them to DPS schools.

I wrote a letter to the editor of The Denver Post at the time stating that I felt Swansea was far superior to our neighborhood school, Holm Elementary, and that the principal and teachers far exceeded the local ones when it came to educating my children.

I am happy to report that my children are all very successful in their respective fields. Going to Swansea, Hamilton Middle School and East High School affected them in a positive way.

Many of the sweeping generalizations in this article — particularly that Democrats in the north dodged the issue of desegregation — are simply not true about Denver.

When incumbent Ed Benton and my husband, Monte Pascoe, ran for the school board in 1969, they were endorsed by the Denver Democratic Party. In Denver, “longtime cowardice” would have to be the description of the Republican Party, which endorsed James Perrill and Frank Southworth, who proudly announced they were against busing.

Many subsequent Republican school board candidates were antibusing. Meanwhile, the Democratic Party elected Monte state chair twice.

The criticism of the media doesn’t apply either. The Denver Post endorsed Benton and Pascoe. However, Perrill and Southworth’s strategy worked and they won that election, reversing the modest plans for integration in northeast Denver. This led to the filing 10 days later of Keyes vs. Denver School District No. 1.

In 1973, under the Keyes case, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the desegregation of the Denver schools “root and branch.” Many good people in Denver, Democrats and Republicans, worked hard to make desegregation work during the 26 years we were under the court order.

I am providing low-cost housing for a single father and his daughter, who is entering middle school this fall.

Our school district offers Moore Middle School, where reading proficiency is 38 percent and math proficiency is 19 percent. A neighboring district offers Mandalay Middle School, where reading proficiency is 51 percent and math proficiency is 45 percent. Which school would you choose for your daughter? Unfortunately, the father works all night at a low-paying job, making providing transportation to the better school nearly impossible.

Yes, we asked about the possibility of busing; both schools are in Jefferson County. “No” was the answer.

Thank you, Tyler Sandberg, for bringing this issue forward. I am one of those whose heart breaks for a known, loved and intelligent child.