busing

American  

[buhs-ing] / ˈbʌs ɪŋ /

Or bussing

noun

1. the transporting of students by bus to schools outside their neighborhoods, especially as a means of achieving socioeconomic or racial diversity among students in a public school.

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busing Cultural  

1. The movement of students from one neighborhood to a school in another neighborhood, usually by bus and usually to break down de facto segregation of public schools.

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A Supreme Court decision in 1971 ruling that busing was an appropriate means of achieving integrated schools (see integration) was received with widespread, sometimes violent, resistance, particularly among whites into whose neighborhoods and schools black children were to be bused. In 1991, the Court ruled that school districts could end busing if they had done everything “practicable” to eliminate the traces of past discrimination.

Etymology

Origin of busing

1885–90; bus ¹ (v.) + -ing ¹, spelled irregular with single s, perhaps to avoid association with buss

Example Sentences

“Sound of Freedom” had church groups busing to theaters to watch the movie in hordes.

From Salon • May 3, 2026

Working long hours doing a bit of everything—right down to busing tables—Meyer ate one at the end of almost every lunch shift.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 31, 2025

Daryl, 42, a self-described conservative, lived in several Southern communities as a child, including Charlotte, North Carolina, in the mid-1980s as the city wrestled with its court-ordered school busing program.

From Salon • Aug. 18, 2025

Before busing people to Humboldt, he said, city staffers spoke with family members or friends who expressed that “they wanted them.”

From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 24, 2024

Whitney Young was named for a civil rights activist and had been opened in 1975 as a positive-minded alternative to busing.

From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama