The Boston School Committee, once synonymous with fierce resistance to racial integration, took a historic step Wednesday night and threw off the last remnants of a busing system first imposed in 1974 under a federal court desegregation order.
Instead of busing children across town to achieve integration, the plan adopted by the committee is intended to allow more students to attend schools closer to home.
That was the objective sought by Mayor Thomas Menino, who appointed a special advisory group last year to overhaul the system. He said that keeping students closer to home would encourage more parental involvement, develop neighborhood cohesion and ultimately improve the schools.
"Tonight's historic vote marks a new day for every child in the city of Boston," the mayor said in a statement.
But numerous parents and activists complained during a hearing before the committee's deliberations that the new system would leave some children -- mostly black and Hispanic -- in the lowest-performing schools.
"No way we can stand around the playground and say, 'Yeah, we're all getting a fair shake,' " one father testified.
They were angry, too, that the committee had not tackled what many agree is the district's fundamental problem -- the scarcity of good schools.
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