Wake County Schools: One Year Later

As you know from my blog posts, tweets, Facebook updates, and water cooler rants, I am frustrated with our local school board. OK, I’m admittedly more pissed that frustrated, but being angry doesn’t make me take action. We are at the one year mark since life as we know started unraveling here. Our Wake County school system has been lauded for being one of the best in the nation. Wake County itself is a desirable destination for transplants and a wonderland for those who enjoyed growing up here because of its quality of life. The schools comprise a large piece of the Quality of Life pie that we all want to gobble up. A city’s schools are a mark of a city’s values.

It’s no secret that an educated community makes for a productive society. We have moved beyond feudal times so that the rich aren’t the only ones entitled to learning. We speak in harsh tones about India’s caste system but somehow believe there isn’t one here, in this great Land of the Free. Our school board apparently thinks otherwise. Their new policies are dismantling the solid school system we have had in place for decades, not without its warts, of course. Schools are never perfect, and there is always room for improvement; such is the nature of a subjective subject. But our school board has taken the notion of tossing the baby out with the bath water a bit too far. I can handle tossing out a few drops of bath water, but turning the tub upside down and drying it out with a martyr’s mantle is unnecessary.

I read some interesting, eye popping points from Great Schools in Wake Coalition:

One year later…

• The board’s promise of stability has lead to more reassignments (1500 students, 46 schools in March and April alone).
• Reassignments have lead to more high poverty schools, and more segregation.
• The board voted against insuring the avoidance of creating high poverty schools.
• A survey of 500 teachers shows that 81% believe the diversity policy based on socioeconomic status has had a positive effect on student achievement.
  
• We are faced with losing federal grants that are based on promoting diversity. This is in light of a potential $70 – $100 million budget shortfall for the 2011-2012 school year.
• The Class of 2011 and beyond risk losing accreditation because we are being investigated by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. This means a loss of scholarship, loans, and financial aid to college students.
• We are under a Title VI review by the U.S. Office of Civil Rights. The results of the investigation could lead to a loss of $80 million in federal funding.
  
• The board spent $82,500 to hire the most expensive and least experienced search firm to find a new superintendent. The most experienced firm would have come in at a cost of $15,000.
• We have police presence at all board meetings, at hefty cost to the public of $14,000 for a five month period.
• The board voted to receive training from their political cronies at the Civitas Institute, a non profit whose mission is to “facilitate the implementation of conservative policy solutions to improve the lives of all North Carolinians.” The Civitas Institute has zero experience or expertise in school board training.
  
• We are professionally isolated due the the board’s vote to leave the N.C School Board Association and the National School Board Association. We are the only school district in the state that is not a member.

If you live in Wake County, North Carolina or have a soft spot for this little City of Oaks, please write letters to the editor, attend school board meetings, email school board members, volunteer at school, give feedback on budget cuts, write to the county commissioners, stay informed.

Support our kids, not just your kids.