METCO (Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity) is a state-run program based in Boston. It allows low-income families from inner-city Boston a chance to send their children to a suburban school system. A lottery system is used to determine who will be bused; the process usually starts in kindergarden. Critics of the program claim that it places an unfair burden on taxpayers, that the METCO students and suburban students do not integrate well, and that white students from Boston are not allowed to participate.