20 U.S.C. § 1701 — Congressional declaration of policy

Page 1032 TITLE 20—EDUCATION § 1701 Sec. PART 5—DEFINITIONS 1720. Definitions. PART 6—MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS 1721. Separability. SUBCHAPTER II—ASSIGNMENT AND TRANSPORTATION OF STUDENTS 1751. Prohibition against assignment or transpor- tation of students to overcome racial im- balance. 1752. Appeals from Federal district court transfer or transportation orders affecting school at- tendance areas and achieving balancing of students; postponement of Federal court or- ders pending exercise of appellate remedy; expiration of section. 1753. Uniform rules of evidence requirement. 1754. Provisions respecting transportation of pupils to achieve racial balance and judicial power to insure compliance with constitutional standards applicable to the entire United States. 1755. Additional priority of remedies after finding of de jure segregation. 1756. Remedies with respect to school district lines. 1757. Prohibition of forced busing during school year. 1758. Reasonable time for developing voluntary school desegregation plans following de- tailed notice of violations. SUBCHAPTER I—EQUAL EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES PART 1—POLICY AND PURPOSE § 1701. Congressional declaration of policy (a) Entitlement to equal educational oppor- tunity; neighborhood as appropriate basis The Congress declares it to be the policy of the United States that— (1) all children enrolled in public schools are entitled to equal educational opportunity without regard to race, color, sex, or national origin; and (2) the neighborhood is the appropriate basis for determining public school assignments. (b) Purpose In order to carry out this policy, it is the pur- pose of this subchapter to specify appropriate remedies for the orderly removal of the vestiges of the dual school system. (Pub. L. 93–380, title II, § 202, Aug. 21, 1974, 88 Stat. 514.) Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries EFFECTIVE DATE Section effective on and after sixtieth day after Aug. 21, 1974, see section 2(c) of Pub. L. 93–380, set out as a note under section 1221–1 of this title. SHORT TITLE Pub. L. 93–380, title II, § 201, Aug. 21, 1974, 88 Stat. 514, provided that: ‘‘This title [enacting this chapter and section 1228 of this title and amending section 1608 of this title] may be cited as the ‘Equal Educational Op- portunities Act of 1974’.’’ § 1702. Congressional findings (a) Dual school systems as denial of equal protec- tion; depletion of financial resources of local educational agencies; transportation of stu- dents; inadequacy of guidelines The Congress finds that— (1) the maintenance of dual school systems in which students are assigned to schools sole- ly on the basis of race, color, sex, or national origin denies to those students the equal pro- tection of the laws guaranteed by the four- teenth amendment; (2) for the purpose of abolishing dual school systems and eliminating the vestiges thereof, many local educational agencies have been re- quired to reorganize their school systems, to reassign students, and to engage in the exten- sive transportation of students; (3) the implementation of desegregation plans that require extensive student transpor- tation has, in many cases, required local edu- cational agencies to expend large amounts of funds, thereby depleting their financial re- sources available for the maintenance or im- provement of the quality of educational facili- ties and instruction provided; (4) transportation of students which creates serious risks to their health and safety, dis- rupts the educational process carried out with respect to such students, and impinges signifi- cantly on their educational opportunity, is ex- cessive; (5) the risks and harms created by excessive transportation are particularly great for chil- dren enrolled in the first six grades; and (6) the guidelines provided by the courts for fashioning remedies to dismantle dual school systems have been, as the Supreme Court of the United States has said, ‘‘incomplete and imperfect,’’ and have not established, a clear, rational, and uniform standard for deter- mining the extent to which a local educational agency is required to reassign and transport its students in order to eliminate the vestiges of a dual school system. (b) Necessity of Congress to specify appropriate remedies for elimination of dual school sys- tems For the foregoing reasons, it is necessary and proper that the Congress, pursuant to the pow- ers granted to it by the Constitution of the United States, specify appropriate remedies for the elimination of the vestiges of dual school systems, except that the provisions of this chap- ter are not intended to modify or diminish the authority of the courts of the United States to enforce fully the fifth and fourteenth amend- ments to the Constitution of the United States. (Pub. L. 93–380, title II, § 203, Aug. 21, 1974, 88 Stat. 514.) Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries EFFECTIVE DATE Section effective on and after sixtieth day after Aug. 21, 1974, see section 2(c) of Pub. L. 93–380, set out as a note under section 1221–1 of this title.