Why bother?
Not that we enjoy beating the proverbial dead horse, but an article out this morning in the N & O illustrates exactly how little thought the Wake County School Board seems to be giving to the new assignment plan. In the explanation to their article, the newspaper staff stated the reason for their work:
Wake County school officials say they’ve never determined how many students who live in Southeast Raleigh are bused to schools outside the area to balance socio-economic diversity.
To estimate the number, The News & Observer looked at neighborhoods that could be zoned to Southeast Raleigh and Enloe high schools under a sample plan developed by school administrators.
The data showed that 5,244 of the 9,807 students live at addresses that are assigned to schools well outside their region. Of that figure, 3,944 students are actually going to their diversity-assigned school, with the rest getting case-by-case permission to go elsewhere, including schools on different calendars.
Anyone else find is overwhelming maddening that the Board has never determined how many students who live in Southeast Raleigh are bused to schools outside the area to balance socio-economic diversity? What the heck are they doing over there? This is basic, demographic information that is necessary to make sound policy decisions. Why must we wait for our community newspaper to do the work of the Board?
Over and over again, school board members have given vague answers to questions about the new policy, asserting summary conclusions without any data, deriding the old diversity policy without any projections for the replacement. Next time we have a question, we might just ask the N & O – at least they return our phone calls.
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