Schools that embraced a change

In the bucolic town of Lincoln, Mass., taxpayers pitch in anywhere from $175,000 to $440,000 per year for Metco, depending on the state budget. Lincoln, home of one of Metco's founders, was among the original seven towns to sign onto the program and today about 13 percent of Metco students are in Lincoln, the highest percentage for any town in the state.

But with budget issues looming large, town and school leaders in Lincoln made the choice, unprecedented in other Metco towns, to take the funding decision - whether to increase, decrease, or maintain the same rate of Metco funding - to the residents. A nonbinding referendum was taken at both its Town Meeting as well as at the polls.

At the meeting, parents of young children spoke passionately about Metco's critical role in exposing suburban students to a world that is increasingly diverse. Senior residents spoke elatedly of Metco's inception and strides made during the civil rights era. And Metco's president delivered an emotional speech, quoting Martin Luther King Jr. and bringing many townspeople to their feet.

In the end, 64 percent of Lincoln residents voted to maintain funding at its current level, a decision the school committee has since decided to honor.

The town does have its Metco detractors. Barbara Low, a Lincoln mother of three children, spoke against "the costly strategy of importing diversity from 20 miles away ... if we want to reduce the Lincoln subsidy, now is the time to start."

But Metco funding should not be strictly about dollars and cents, says David Adams, Metco director at Bedford High School in Bedford, Mass, a town adjacent to Lincoln. "These kids get a cross-cultural experience," he says, adding that the impact of Metco lasts a lifetime. In the short term, graduates of Metco schools are keeping up with their suburban peers. "Ninety-eight percent of all students from Bedford High go on to four-year colleges," Mr. Adams says.

Among those Bedford seniors headed to college is Sheldon Ayala. One of four children, Sheldon has attended Bedford schools as a Metco student for 10 years.

He was recently accepted at Northeastern University in Boston, news that thrills his family. "Everyone there is going to college," says his mother, Maria Ayala. "This has really benefited him." His younger brother, Shawn, is also a student at Bedford High, in the 10th grade. Mom rides with her boys daily, as she is a bus monitor and a teaching assistant in a Bedford kindergarten class. "Sometimes the distance gets to me," she says, "but it's been wonderful for the boys. They have accomplished a lot."

In an ideal world, says Metco's executive director, Jean McGuire, there wouldn't be a need for Metco. Schools in the inner-city should be far better, and suburban towns should offer more affordable housing, she says.

But until then, she and other champions of Metco will keep making their daily trek to the Boston State House, lobbying legislators for increased funding and working to safeguard the program they feel has worked for them.

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