ABSTRACT
Reagan's Republican platform of 1980 "condemned the forced busing of school children to achieve arbitrary racial quotas". It said busing had "failed to improve the quality of education, while diverting funds from programs that could make the difference between success and failure for the poor, the disabled, and minority children". One of William Bradford Reynolds's jobs was to develop a legal strategy that would translate these campaign promises into public policy. Between 1954 and 1968, the Court reinterpreted the clause to prohibit racial discrimination in assigning children to public schools. Between 1954 and 1968, the Court reinterpreted the clause to prohibit racial discrimination in assigning children to public schools. The justices said that busing for racial balance would undo the effects of discrimination and thereby give meaning to equal protection, but skeptics suspected that the Court's real purpose was to uplift black youths by ensuring that they were socialized in racially balanced, predominantly white schools.
