When Judge W. Arthur Garrity Jr. ordered the desegregation of Boston’s public schools in 1974, the ruling sparked protests that made national headlines. The decision — which mandated busing for 18,000 students — was aimed at addressing inequity in Boston’s school system. Yet 50 years later, with the start of the 2024 school year, education gaps persist.

The data paint a stark picture. White and Asian students in Boston significantly higher score than their black and Hispanic peers on state standardized tests, and graduation rates for black and Hispanic students remain below those of other students in the district — just 78 percent of black and Hispanic students graduated in 2023, compared to 87 percent of white students and 93 percent of Asian students. Additionally, 69% of graduates are white in 2022 attended collegewhile only 57 percent of black graduates and 39 percent of Hispanic graduates did the same.

Boston’s school system has changed considerably since the 1970s. Currently, busing is voluntary: students can choose to attend schools far from where they live, as well as a number of neighborhood schools. This choice allows historically disadvantaged students to attend schools with more peers from different backgrounds, an option that many choose. About three-quarters of students opted to enroll in out-of-district schools between 2000 and 2010. A recent study by our organization, MIT Blueprint Labsshows that today’s award system works to facilitate integration.

However, the costs of the current system are high. Among the 100 in the USA school districts with the highest enrollment, Boston claims the highest transportation costs per student in the country. As of 2021, the city spent over $2,000 per student on travel, equivalent to 8% of school spending per student.

Furthermore, the educational gains from district-wide choice are less clear than the gains from integration. Our research, which uses credible, randomized methods designed by Blueprint Labs to assess the causal effect of enrollment in different types of schools, paints a nuanced picture of the benefits of traveling to out-of-neighborhood schools. Black and Hispanic students who commute to an out-of-district school have more white and Asian peers than they would otherwise. But travel does not affect learning, as measured by MCAS scores, high school graduation rates or college enrollment. We argue that this is because in the current BPS system of choice – unlike the separate and unequal system of 1974 – the schools to which students travel are no better than those nearby.

Attorney Theodore Landsmark, who became nationally known in 1976 as the victim of a racially motivated attack by anti-busing protesters outside City Hall, foresaw this dilemma. In a 2009 Globe op-ed, Landsmark wrote, “It’s time to end busing in Boston. The demographics of the city have changed. … Busing does not address the complexities of strengthening urban education for all of our diverse residents.”

In the 15 years since Landsmark was published, the need to rethink the city’s transport policy has grown. The huge sums now going into inter-neighbourhood transport could be better spent. Instead, the city could invest in programs with proven educational benefits. The effective high-dose training program from Saga Educationfor example, it cost only $1,800 per student in 2023. This spending may do more to close racial achievement gaps than out-of-neighborhood allocation.

Some might counter that choice is intrinsically valuable and that neighborhood schools are likely more segregated than the schools that many historically disadvantaged families choose today. These undeniable benefits must be weighed, however, against the alternative uses of the money flowing to buses. Boston’s schools have improved greatly since 1974: dropout rates for all students have fallen, and racial disparities, though still present, have narrowed. Homework plans that began in 1974 may therefore be less useful today. It is time to consider changing transportation policy in light of these changes in the city’s educational landscape.

Joshua Angrist and Parag Pathak are professors of economics at MIT and co-founders of the Blueprint Labs and Avela Education. Amanda Schmidt is a senior policy and communications associate at Blueprint Labs. Angrist won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2021, and Pathak received the John Bates Clark Medal in 2018 as the best American economist under 40.