Reddit reviews Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow: School Desegregation and Resegregation in Charlotte

Sure, I agree with a lot of what you said. The real problem is that during legal segregation, we were segregated residentially. Once enforced segregation became illegal 60 years ago, we were still segregated residentially. It's not something that changes over night. Ending residential segregation is a very slow process.

Nonetheless, residential segregation has caused neighborhood schools to be segregated which in turn kept up "separate and unequal" schooling. Charlotte became an experimental zone after Swann vs. CMS in the 70s and we enforced mandatory busing. Mandatory busing actually showed significant improvements in terms of school outcomes for Blacks as well as no significant negatives for whites (here is an abstract from an article on this, if interested, I can send you the full pdf). Since Swann vs CMS was experimental, there is actually a lot of research, including books, that has been done on the topic and it all shows similar positive results.

Once we overturned Swann vs CMS, there was a significant reduction in the schooling outcomes for Blacks. It has been shown time and time again, all over the nation, that integrated schools have positive outcomes for all.

However, as you pointed out, at the real root of the problem is residential segregation. There is not a real immediate answer for this other than very slow integration.

Whether or not we want to burden the children of Charlotte and have them bused around further in exchange for attempting equality and opportunity for underprivileged children can be a difficult proposition to parents. Not only is this a difficult commute for the children, but there has been studies that show that parents are not as engaged in schools that are further away.