Sometimes a Great Notion. . . .

The evidence is perhaps equally strong, however, that the Bradley Effect does not exist any longer. As can be seen in the Hopkins paper for Harvard University that I have referenced many times, at some point during the mid 1990s the Bradley Effect seems to be disappeared.

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/


Thinking back to the early 70's in Maryland, when busing was making peeps very angry. My second grader asked, "Mom, what's busing?" I said: "When kids get on a school bus to go to school." "No it *isn't* " he said. "If that's all it is, why is everyone so upset?" So I told him.

A couple of years later, he had a good friend in school. I was constantly hearing about this friendship. I was delighted for him (not a child who made friends easily). It wasn't until parent-teacher conference that his teacher told me that this friend of my son was a black child. A direct result of busing, which I absolutely supported. Something similar happened to my younger son in fifth and sixth grade.

During that period I read a study of the results of busing in other areas. The gist was that, in fact, neither group got a better education from the practice. But that what *did* change was that neither group was any longer *afraid* of the other group.

These children are 44 and 42 -- no longer even young voters. . . . And I have a very hard time imagining either of them voting on the basis of race. And I also imagine that much of America now fits that same paradigm. . . .