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Tedesco is doing what he said he would do when he ran for his position... He promised a return to neighborhood schools and the voters obviously wanted that..
Wow, this whole fiasco is giving otherwise progressive Raleigh a black eye.
Personally, I'm an advocate of neighborhood schools; the whole "segregation" thing doesn't bother me as much (since, as a Black man, I'd argue that integration wasn't exactly a panacea for the education of Black children), but I'm more than certain that the funding will be unequally distributed between the schools. It's a case of embracing the ideal but living in reality.
Wow, this whole fiasco is giving otherwise progressive Raleigh a black eye.
Personally, I'm an advocate of neighborhood schools; the whole "segregation" thing doesn't bother me as much (since, as a Black man, I'd argue that integration wasn't exactly a panacea for the education of Black children), but I'm more than certain that the funding will be unequally distributed between the schools. It's a case of embracing the ideal but living in reality.
What I am finding interesting is the number of supporters thanking the new school board for saving taxpayers money and cutting spending. Not that they have but it appears that was part of the appeal for getting them elected. That is a novel notion to hear Board of Education members being perceived as wanting to cut the school system money. Normally aren't they suppose to be advocates for funding. Has anyone noticed the age of some of the board supporters would suggest they don't have school age kids? Is there appeal based on something other than just providing quality schooling?
No, not as diverse, kind of like the real world.
Tuborg, since you like to ask leading questions, let me ask you a question, "Is sending kids from lower income areas to schools in higher income areas sending the wrong message to the kids?"
Good question and the answer is one of much debate. However I would suggest that the way things are playing out in Wake is certainly sending the wrong message to the kids and it would appear the communities some of them live in. Remember it is playing out as bringing back economic segregation so maybe the diversity policy was really about income and not race. It is the supporters of the new board who constantly argue that the schools will still be racially mixed but will they still have the same economic mix?
In all seriousness I think some of the school board members should consider hiring a consultant to teach them how to interact with the media and improve how they give interviews and comments to news reporters. Perhaps they are simply letting the media "bait" them but they do not come off well at in their recorded comments. First tip is to not laugh at a question. It makes you appear arrogant and dismissive. Most elected officials grasp that basic concept fairly quickly but this has somehow managed to elude some of the new members.
It appears sometimes that they and their supporters may have the how do you say it, In Your Face Attitude? Again the Tea Party connection for a school board is inviting a reaction as are the connections with the Jesse Helms machine.
It sends EXACTLY the right message to kids--the message I tell my kids every day of their lives: "when you have something that most other people do not, you share. You give of yourself, you give of your time, you give of your assets, to try to make the community, and the world, a better place." (I don't define "community" by "people who look and spend like I do).
Children don't choose their parents or the economic situation they're born into. Every single one of them has a right to a good education.
My kids go to a "10" rated school with great scores in Outer Suburbia. Our neighborhood is diverse-ish (mostly white but with other nationalities and ethnicities represented as well), but it's economically homogeneous--all the houses are probably worth within $30k of each other. I WANT my kids learning along side kids from all kinds of economic and ethnic backgrounds.
And I'm not some guitar-strumming hippie who doesn't know any better; when we lived in another state my kids went to a private school where the only nonwhite kids were pro football players' kids. That's not real.
I value diversity as well, but I'm truly confused by the "resegregation" message being shouted from the rooftops (not referring to the quote above). Individuals have the ability to choose their neighborhoods-- truly freely. How is it "segregating" them to send their children to the closest school to that neighborhood? If that's the case, didn't they segregate themselves?
Which is where the above post comes in -- if you want your children in a diverse school, perhaps you should choose to live in a more diverse neighborhood. They're out there. I live in one myself. I want my children to go to school with the friends they play on the weekends. It makes no sense to me to ship them across town to a presumably "better" school in a "better" neighborhood.
There's also an interesting message, referenced by TheS5, that there's something wrong with the neighborhoods that children live in. Diversity is a great thing but I believe that all of us should be able to choose the environment we live in. We have to face the fact that we as a human race are diverse and that our different cultures are appealing or unappealing to others. Our cultures aren't "wrong" or "right," they just are. And just as well all have the freedom to choose the neighborhood that reflects our comfort level in that regard, we should embrace that choice in our neighborhood school as well.
I'm truly puzzled by the opposition. Wasn't there an astounding amount of moaning and groaning from (apparently) the same crowd when bussing was introduced? Hours on a school bus, separated from community, etc. etc. It seems that some folks can't be pleased no matter the situation.
To me, "segregation" is telling someone they can't attend a school because of their race. Telling someone they have to attend the closest school to their residence is NOT what's happening here. I wonder if that's truly the complaint or if that's just the quickest way to get media attention and smokescreen the real issue?
I have read this thread and am very interested in this subject. I have recently relocated from a large urban area. I worked in a "neighborhood" school there. The county I worked for does not bus, students attend the school closest to them. My school is 98% free and reduced lunch, and 97% African American, with the other 3% made up of hispanic students. I can tell you that working in this school was not easy.
The kids do not leave their neighborhood, they have no idea what diversity is and sadly their picture of the world is inaccurate. They are not receiving an equal education to their peers that live in better neighborhoods. The school building is literally falling down, but with uninvolved parents who may have other serious problems like drug addictions, serving jail time, working multiple jobs to support their families, they are not advocates for their children. Education is not a priority in that community, students never see what a good education can do for them.
Our test scores were abysmal, behavior was out of control, it was hard or impossible to get in touch with parents to talk about their children. This school is not an isolated case in the area, in fact it's one of many schools that share the same plight.
For those of you that say that people have a choice of where to live, that's true if you have money. For many of these parents there is not choice about where to live, they go and live where they can find affordable housing or in the neighborhoods where they grew up and are comfortable. Unfortunately as long as these conditions exist the poverty cycle will continue. Just my opinion from someone who has been there!
Crawfish, you make some really great points--points that I have, myself, pondered!! My kids do NOT go to their closest elementary (there are at least 2-3 closer) but the one we're assigned to is only about 2miles away anway, so we're fine with it. And in my small community of 3 cul-de-sacs there are many kids, but only one other household of the elementary kids goes to this school--the others go to school where their mom works, or at a charter school, or private. So no matter where we were assigned we wouldn't be with the neighbor kids (and even if we were, the year round system puts the kibosh on playing together since no one's on the same track).
You are mistaken when you say we can "completely freely" choose our neighborhoods. We can't. We can choose freely among the options that are a) affordable and b) have public transit, if needed, or otherwise acceptable access to work and c) are close to child care/family to care for our kids.
I hate that my kids are assigned to a middle school that's so far away when there are FOUR closer to us. Hate it. Would like one closer. What I can't figure out is why neighborhood schools HAVE to mean anti-diversity. I would like to think that the "zones" that have been proposed (and, yes, I've read the full proposal/powerpoint by Tedesco that's available online) could be drawn deliberately to include lower income housing alongside wealthier n'hoods.
People *do* segregate themselves, there's no doubt about it. A first grader asked me once, "why do all the Spanish kids (meaning kids who speak Spanish) ride the same bus?" My response: "If you moved to France or Spain and spoke only English, would you try to find a home near other Americans and people who spoke English?" The response: "of course!" People seek community. But in the work force and in life--when shopping, traveling, eating out, etc., we are going to live amongst and have interactions with people of all economic and ethnic backgrounds. I have no desire to put my kids in some sort of whitewashed ethnic/economic bubble, especially since we live in such a tidy suburb. As I said before, I live in a fairly diverse n'hood ethnically.
Bottom line is every child, regardless of what his/her parents can afford, has a right to a good education. I don't know what the solution to ensuring this is, but the School Board has gone out of its way to say quite clearly that diversity is off the table, gone, and wrong. Why can't we seek both community schools AND diversity?
In all seriousness I think some of the school board members should consider hiring a consultant to teach them how to interact with the media and improve how they give interviews and comments to news reporters. Perhaps they are simply letting the media "bait" them but they do not come off well at in their recorded comments. First tip is to not laugh at a question. It makes you appear arrogant and dismissive. Most elected officials grasp that basic concept fairly quickly but this has somehow managed to elude some of the new members.
Excellent observation, NRG. I wholeheartedly agree. These Board members come across as arrogant, dismissive jackasses, and the rest of us look like a bunch of buffoons for having elected them.
I have read this thread and am very interested in this subject. I have recently relocated from a large urban area. I worked in a "neighborhood" school there. The county I worked for does not bus, students attend the school closest to them. My school is 98% free and reduced lunch, and 97% African American, with the other 3% made up of hispanic students. I can tell you that working in this school was not easy.
The kids do not leave their neighborhood, they have no idea what diversity is and sadly their picture of the world is inaccurate. They are not receiving an equal education to their peers that live in better neighborhoods. The school building is literally falling down, but with uninvolved parents who may have other serious problems like drug addictions, serving jail time, working multiple jobs to support their families, they are not advocates for their children. Education is not a priority in that community, students never see what a good education can do for them.
Our test scores were abysmal, behavior was out of control, it was hard or impossible to get in touch with parents to talk about their children. This school is not an isolated case in the area, in fact it's one of many schools that share the same plight.
For those of you that say that people have a choice of where to live, that's true if you have money. For many of these parents there is not choice about where to live, they go and live where they can find affordable housing or in the neighborhoods where they grew up and are comfortable. Unfortunately as long as these conditions exist the poverty cycle will continue. Just my opinion from someone who has been there!
This, to me, is where it IS the school board's responsibility to step in, and make things equitable. The largest % of monies available need to be spent, not on buses to achieve diversity, but on viable programs, teachers and staff, to make the schools equitable.
A school, sitting in the midst of fairly well-educated, and advantaged population of higher incomes does not need the lion's share of the funds. It's the disadvantaged, poorer schools, and every effort should be made to bring those schools up to par -- spending the money to make the schools attractive enough for the children to want to go there, putting the money into the best, most-qualified teachers who have a vested interest in the school and the children (and not looking for necessarily a bigger paycheck), and in proven programs that the student population will academically buy into.
Efforts should be made, enlisting the services of the local and state governments to help clean-up the neighborhoods -- bring in social workers to work their 'magic' on the drug-addicted, under-educated, probably unemployed or low-earning parents, and address the needs of these children. Put law enforcement presence in the area, not to create a 'police state' but to make the neighborhoods as safe as can be, and at least a more attractive place to be.
Busing these children from these areas to schools perceived as better across town has yet to work for the disadvantaged children for any number of reasons. They don't get any better of an education for being in the school -- it is largely a misconception. I hate to burst your notions-of-equality bubble, but the children aren't even really wanted there. I wish I could have taped the comments made by my colleagues and the administrative staff over the years I worked in NC's public schools -- "we don't like, want, can't work with the Black, Hispanic, migrant, transient, poor, beach, white trash (fill-in with any group you choose) kids." Made me sick.
So, instead of bringing any of those populations to the *whatever* schools, give them everything they need to compete with those schools. Raise them above where they are coming from, and give them a real chance at a good education, and the opportunities a good education affords, if they want to take advantage of it. In defense of some of my colleagues over the years, we often had to fight a self-defeating attitude with the children bused into the school.
If what you've been doing ain't working, why keep doing it? As a retired NC public school teacher, voter, and taxpayer, I am willing to give the neighborhood schools a chance, if they are done right. I have NO confidence, however, that Tedesco and Margiotta know how to do that, or are willing to do that. I think they have always had another agenda, if nothing else to get themselves elected to the Board, make a lot of noise, and move onto some other arena in political careers.
I also don't see the issues as 'racially' motivated, but as more 'economic,' and which may very well lead to our own destruction. Let history speak for itself when issues boil down, simply enough, to the haves and have-nots. Give the have-nots what they need to join the haves.
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Another two cents' worth
