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In Berkeley, at least, all the dire predictions about the adverse effects of bus sing have not come true. Sullivan was warned that the program would turn Berkeley into a black city; instead, white enrollment in the schools actually rose during the past three years, reversing a 20-year trend. He says that this has happened because the schools provide "something exciting at the end of the bus ride" in the form of better education. He has introduced smaller classes, more guidance counselors for troubled students, sophisticated audio-visual aids. A study by the California legislature last year showed that Berkeley is one of the nation's few cities with a large minority population where student scores on achievement tests were higher than the national average.
Shotgun Barrage. Sullivan, 51, seems to relish tough jobs. Born in Manchester, N.H., he holds advanced degrees from Columbia and Harvard (Ed.D., 1956), served as a school superintendent in Maine and on Long Island before setting up a private school system for Negroes in Prince Edward County, Va., in 1963. There the public schools had closed rather than integrate, and Negro children had gone untaught for four years. Sullivan persisted in launching the new schools despite continual threats and a shotgun barrage on his house.
Convinced that he has done what he set out to do in Berkeley, Sullivan last month announced that he will leave in January to accept a new challenge. He will become state education commissioner for Massachusetts, where a new law requiring racial balance in the schools is meeting some resistance. Most of the opposition is in Boston, which may soon face Sullivan's prodding question—if two-way bussing works in Berkeley, why not there as well?