Wichita ? Wichita School District is looking to end its civil-rights era school busing plan, which some administrators say is no longer necessary because of demographic changes in the city.

On Tuesday, the school board will hear an administrative proposal that could end the district’s long-standing integration agreement with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. While the district has discussed ending busing for integration before, administrators say the program might have finally outlived its usefulness.

The Wichita Eagle reported Sunday that only 1,370 students are bused to integrate schools. That’s down from 5,000 in 1971, the year Wichita started “forced busing.” A total of roughly 19,500 students ride Wichita school buses to class.

The decline in busing is largely because of the district’s changing racial and ethnic makeup. In 1971, about 82 percent of students were white. Now, just less than 40 percent are white.

School board members insist that whatever changes are made to the plan, they will keep the best interests of all students in mind.

“It doesn’t matter how they get there, whether they ride a bus, walk or crawl there – I’m very focused on ensuring quality education for all children,” says Connie Dietz, now in her third term as board president.

Another force driving administrators to the change the program is a Supreme Court decision in June that called into question similar integration agreements in Seattle and Louisville, Ky. The Wichita district’s lawyer voiced concern in a letter to the Office for Civil Rights that it could be vulnerable to lawsuits after the ruling.

“The current plan calls for cross-(town) busing,” the letter stated. “We have a concern that, in light of (the Supreme Court decision), the District is vulnerable to being sued. … We want to discuss whether cross-busing should continue to be part of the district’s desegregation plan.”

The busing policy’s goal was to have each school’s total minority enrollment be within 20 percentage points of the district’s average. But more than a quarter of Wichita public schools do not comply this year.

The district does not enforce the policy, officials say, because to do so would require more cross-town busing and other integration methods that could be subject to legal challenges.

Wichita schools value diversity, says spokeswoman Wendy Johnson, but “as our city has become more diverse, it has become somewhat naturally segregated. The policy is not mindful of that natural segregation … it effectively says there are quotas that have to be achieved.”

Two years ago, the district conducted surveys to gauge Wichitans’ reactions to changing the plan. Community response was mixed and the school board tabled its discussions until the Supreme Court ruled on Louisville and Seattle.

This fall, the board asked the administration and a task force to recommend possible changes.

Superintendent Winston Brooks would not reveal details of the proposal. He has said in the past that one idea would be to give students who were bused for integration first priority for magnet school openings in the 2008-09 school year.

Those who have advised the district on the busing plan say they want more choices for all families, but especially for black students who are bused every year.

“Questions I’ve had and others have had is, in a broad sense, how can we take the word ‘forced’ out of our busing program and how can we efficiently manage to give all students and all students’ parents the choice to go to the schools that they wish?” says Chip Gramke, a former school board member who served on the district’s busing task force.