Instead of following the advice of the consultant they hired to present a plan for "controlled choice," the Tea Partiers on the panel have chosen the most divisive and unfair of the four options on the table. Is anyone surprised?
After all, the ideological playbook that these teabagger mouthpieces are working from demands the debasement and destruction of public education. Re-creating a whole bunch of poor, failing schools feeds that effort, while satisfying the racists within Wake County who "want their country back." It's a real opportunity for the John Birchers and the Koch Brothers to advance their anti-democratic agenda. A clip from the News & Observer:
. . . .Last month, the student assignment committee told staff to work on four different maps, based on high school attendance lines; transportation zones; regions run by each area superintendent; and, planning regions used for developing school construction bond issues.
Committee members agreed Tuesday to go with a plan with the largest number of zones of those considered by the committee and schools staff.
"From the things that people have said, the high school model seems to have the most positives," said board majority member Chris Malone. "What I would like us to do is begin with that shell."
But the choice of more neighborhood zones goes against the recommendations of Michael Alves, a Massachusetts educational consultant who was invited to explain his "controlled choice" concept to Wake officials this summer. Alves said that such plans, used by dozens of systems nationwide, work best with a smaller number of large zones that each reflect the entire community.
Demographic data shows that the 16 neighborhood school zones have wide disparities in race and in the percentage of children receiving federally subsidized lunches. Committee members stressed that the boundary lines for the 16 zones are still being worked on and could be redrawn in an attempt to minimize these disparities. . . .
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