District May End Economic Diversity Program

[alp227]

RALEIGH, N.C. — When Rosemarie Wilson moved her family to a wealthy suburb of Raleigh a couple of years ago, the biggest attraction was the prestige of the local public schools. Then she started talking to neighbors.

Don’t believe the hype, they warned. Many were considering private schools. All pointed to an unusual desegregation policy, begun in 2000, in which some children from wealthy neighborhoods were bused to schools in poorer areas, and vice versa, to create economically diverse classrooms.

“Children from the 450 houses in our subdivision were being bused all across the city,” said Ms. Wilson, for whom the final affront was a proposal by the Wake County Board of Education to send her two daughters to schools 17 miles from home.

So she vented her anger at the polls, helping elect four new Republican-backed education board members last fall. Now in the majority, those board members are trying to make good on campaign promises to end Wake’s nationally recognized income-based busing policy.

At stake is the direction of the 140,000-student school system — the largest in America to consider family income in school placements. Wake has long been the most prominent example of a district that dropped race-based busing, which courts have ruled unconstitutional, in favor of trying to achieve economic diversity in the schools.

The board is scheduled to vote Tuesday on whether to support the creation of “community assignment zones” to restrict the distance that students are bused. A new board member has also introduced a resolution to remove the word “diverse” from the busing policy and add a clause “promoting neighborhood schools with proximity to home consideration.”

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/us/28raleigh.html

[unabelladonna]

1. i'm not in favor of busing children miles away from home

it only results in parents sending their children to private or parochial school. it was why we moved out to the burbs when my daughter was a child....we chose a town which was known as having a superb school system. that's the reality (although certainly not the ideal)....and i wasn't particularly proud i did it but.....

[Catshrink]

2. Given the method of public education financing in most places

i.e., the property tax, schools end up with widely disparate resources.

[proud2BlibKansan]

3. Very true. And other than a determination to keep their own kids

in well funded schools, these folks never seem to know much about school funding.

It gets down to creating a permanent underclass. If we want to avoid that, we need to offer an excellent education for ALL children, not only the ones whose parents can afford to live in 'good' districts.

[mzteris]

4. in an effort to crfeate/maintain

diversity - without using "race" as a factor, Wake county hit upon economics as the real factor in disparity.

While part of me wishes for "neighborhood schools" for convenience and camaraderie, neighborhood cohesion, and parental involvement - I also understand that "housing segregation" has greated situations whereby schools are essentially "segregated". Using economy, rather that race, removes theh "race card" from the equation (in theory). I don't think it's a BAD idea, I know the intent behind it was well-meant. However, like most theories, I'm not sure how it plays out in practice.