School integration battle in North Carolina

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In N.C., a new battle on school integration

By Stephanie McCrummen

Washington Post Staff Writer

Wednesday, January 12, 2011; A01

The sprawling Wake County School District has long been a rarity. Some of its best, most diverse schools are in the poorest sections of this capital city. And its suburban schools, rather than being exclusive enclaves, include children whose parents cannot afford a house in the neighborhood.

But over the past year, a new majority-Republican school board backed by national tea party conservatives has set the district on a strikingly different course. Pledging to "say no to the social engineers!" it has abolished the policy behind one of the nation's most celebrated integration efforts.

And as the board moves toward a system in which students attend neighborhood schools, some members are embracing the provocative idea that concentrating poor children, who are usually minorities, in a few schools could have merits - logic that critics are blasting as a 21st-century case for segregation.

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The new school board has won applause from parents ... who say that promoting diversity is no longer a proper or necessary goal for public schools.

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But critics [say that] without a diversity policy in place ... the county will inevitably slip into the pattern that defines most districts across the country, where schools in well-off neighborhoods are decent and those in poor, usually minority neighborhoods struggle.

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Tedesco, who has emerged as the most vocal among the new majority on the nine-member board, said he and his colleagues are only seeking a simpler system in which children attend the schools closest to them. If the result is a handful of high-poverty schools, he said, perhaps that will better serve the most challenged students.

"If we had a school that was, like, 80 percent high-poverty, the public would see the challenges, the need to make it successful," he said.

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"I don't want us to go back to racially isolated schools," said Shila Nordone, who is biracial and has two children in county schools. "But right now, it's as if the best we can do is dilute these kids out so they don't cause problems. It sickens me."

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The GOP fielded the victorious bloc of school board candidates who railed against "forced busing."

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Things have not gone smoothly as the new school board has attempted to define its vision for raising student achievement. A preliminary map of new school assignments did not please some of the new majority's own constituents. And critics expressed alarm that the plan would create a handful of high-poverty, racially isolated schools, a scenario that the new majority has begun embracing.

[Danno 1,228]

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But over the past year, a new majority-Republican school board backed by national tea party conservatives has set the district on a strikingly different course. Pledging to "say no to the social engineers!" it has abolished the policy behind one of the nation's most celebrated integration efforts.>>>

Other than a focus on skin color, I wish it had mentioned one measurable reason it was celebrated for.

Schools with poor kids get more funding than schools without.... much more.

For those focused on the racial make up of students... all these years later, don't worry, the social engineers will not disappoint.

While it's true in many areas judges have ruled against using race as a factor anymore in school assignment, where the engineers have done an endrun around the parents (and courts) is they now they use INCOME as the factor in assigning schools.

So Little Sally and Little Lakrisha are still getting up before the sun rises to be out at the bus stop at 6;30 to be driven to each others neighborhood to start the school day.