I was a student in San Diego unified when the busing was going on. San Diego did NOT have forced busing. They were able to achieve their numbers with volunteer busing and magnet schools.
My junior high (before they called it a middle school) and high school had kids bused in.
There was some racial tension… but this was the 70’s – we students did a sit-in to get the administration to help deal with it. LOL. (I’ll admit – for many it was an excuse to ditch a class to do the sit-in.)
I don’t know of ANY parents that pulled their kids when the voluntary busing started. And UC was pretty affluent. Very few of my friends went to private school. One friend went to a magnet school – for the performing arts. This was before UC high and Standley middle – UC kids went to Marston and Clairemont.
There’s a reason magnet schools in San Diego unified are often in less desirable neighborhoods – it’s a way of drawing the white kids from the neighborhood schools to the more inner city neighorhoods – look at what used to be San Diego High (near downtown), south end of Balboa Park. It was a pretty poor performing school, very inner city in it’s demographics – now it’s a cluster of magnet schools – schools within the larger campus. And it draws from all over the district For the leadership school, the arts school, the business school, international studies. The demographics changed with the magnet programs. http://www.sandi.net/20451072011457293/blank/browse.asp?a=383&BMDRN=2000&BCOB=0&c=66267
