Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) said Wednesday that busing students to better integrate schools should be an option left up to school districts, and not federally mandated, apparently backtracking from the stance she took on the matter during the 2020 Democratic debate last week. After a Democratic Party picnic in Iowa Wednesday, Harris said she considers busing to be a choice local school districts have, and not a responsibility of the federal government. “I think of busing as being in the toolbox of what is available and what can be used for the goal of desegregating America’s schools,” Harris said. After a reporter asked Harris to clarify whether she supports federally mandated busing, she replied, “I believe that any tool that is in the toolbox should be considered by a school district.”

The issue of busing took center stage during night two of the first Democratic debates last week when Harris confronted former Vice President Joe Biden on his opposition to mandatory school busing when he was a senator in the 1970s. Harris said she benefited from busing as a student in Berkeley, California, in the early 1970s. Kate Bedingfield, Biden’s deputy campaign manager, tweeted criticism of Harris on Wednesday for her apparent change of tone on the matter. “It’s disappointing that Senator Harris chose to distort Vice President Biden’s position on busing— particularly now that she is tying herself in knots trying not to answer the very question she posed to him!”