METCO

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METCO (Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity) is a Boston-based program operated and funded by the Department of Education (MA DOE) of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It allows minority families from Boston and Springfield a chance to send their children to a suburban school system. The voluntary program has been in existence since 1966, almost a decade before forced busing began in Boston. METCO currently includes over 3,000 students in over 30 school districts. It is one of only five such voluntary busing programs in the United States.^[1]

This plan "shall tend to eliminate racial imbalance in the sending district" and, as well, the law states, "to help alleviate racial isolation in the receiving district."^[2] A lottery system is used to determine who will be included; the process usually starts in kindergarten. Receiving districts reaffirm annually their interest in participating, as these districts bear any costs not covered by the state funding and charitable contributions.

Critics of the program claim that it places an unfair burden on taxpayers of the suburban area, that the METCO students and suburban students do not integrate well, and that white students from Boston are not allowed to participate.

Proponents believe that it increases the cross-cultural and racial understanding in the receiving cities and towns, many of which are otherwise largely racially as well as economically homogenous. Substantially more of the program's graduating seniors indicate their intent of going on to higher education as compared to other students in the state.^[3] Through "partner families" and extracurricular events, students and parents from sending and receiving districts form closer ties, which may work to alleviate prejudice, discrimination, and racism.