A national spotlight on a local busing fight, 25 years ago

On June 1st of 1993, Connie Chung joined the “CBS Evening News” as a co-anchor with Dan Rather…and that night, she closed the newscast with a report on a busing plan to achieve economic balance in public schools in La Crosse.  CBS reporter Wyatt Andrews covered the story, which had been big news in La Crosse for nearly two years.  The dispute over busing students in La Crosse to equalize kids from rich and poor families within school buildings led to two school board recall elections in 1992, in which four board members were ousted.  The change in board membership came too late in the summer to halt the busing plan for the fall of ’92, and it went ahead as scheduled.
 
Western Wisconsin was about to get a big summer flood that June.  Heavy rains affected the Black River, leading to a partial failure of the Hatfield Dam at Lake Arbutus, and the Mississippi at La Crosse eventually went higher around the time of Riverfest.
 
The original “Jurassic Park” made its debut in June.  Later in the summer, Harrison Ford would star as “The Fugitive,” at theaters in 1993, yesterday in La Crosse.