Reports of the death of this blog are exaggerated.
In fact, greatly so. Sure, we've been gone a while. Sharpedo has been travelling and generally fulfilling whatever duties an officer in a mega corporation aimed at the world's impressionable youngsters has, and I have been busting my rear. When you do bankruptcy and commercial creditor's rights law, a recession is plate-spinning time.
Plus, facebook has given me another outlet for pictures of my beautiful kids, my useless trivia and urge to try to be witty on a daily basis. It also provides a forum for Winston to routinely call me wrong. So that has not been here.
But really, what has been lacking since November has been a foil. I couldn't go after the media. Jon Stewart does that to perfection every evening. I don't have time to chronicle the endless displays of spineless jellytude put on by the Democratic "leadership" in Congress. DailyKos is already all over that with the depth and breadth (if uneven quality) that only a cloud-computing megasite can bring to the subject.
So what did I have to write about? Not much, and certainly not much that warranted taking 10 minutes out of an already jam-packed day to sit down and compose something other than a quick facebook status hit.
Now, however, we've got something. Tuesday the voters of Wake County decided to urinate all over Harold Webb's legacy and soundly rejected socioeconomic diversity as a goal in education. In so doing, they handed the reins of the best school system in North Carolina over to the anti-busing, anti-magnet school, anti-diversity, anti-year round, anti-sex ed, anti-science, anti-arts, anti-tax right wing. Let's hear it for Topeka!
So the parents who whined about reassignment are about to start reassigning students all over the place - enforcing a policy that requires you to go to the school nearest your house - regardless of how crappy or overcrowded that school might be. And when they come to take my kids out of Lynn Road and put them in Jeffery's Grove, well... let's just say they ain't seen nothing yet.
So this blog, or at least the Wake County side of our editorial board, is now going to focus a little more intently on the new members of the Wake County Board of Education. This should serve as their notice.
I'm ready for Deborah Prickett, et al, to call for tax increases to build the innumerable new schools that their "neighborhood schools" policy is going to require. And if they think they will be able to cannibalize the budgets of schools in established areas of town just to build their realtor friends some shiny new educational palaces in Apex and Wake Forest without a fight, they're REALLY kidding themselves.
Few things are more fun than being an angry voter with an outlet for publication. Let's see what they propose.
Stay tuned...
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9 comments:
Lock and load, DFL. My brother and (as of this past Saturday) his wife have 5 kids in the WCPSS, so I've got some skin in this game even if I do live an hour away. And as someone who was involved in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg busing that gave rise to the Swann case (and whose mother led a citizens' group of mostly white people who, perhaps foolishly, dedicated themselves to trying to make desegregation work, for everybody), I'm going to be curious to see how this turns out.
'watch out when they come to pull you out of Lynn Rd to go to Jeffrey's Grove'? You mean like we were pulled out of our schools to be sent across town because they needed our numbers? You mean why <10% of those in our neighborhood who apply are accepted to magnets, because we're not the right socioeconomic type? Good for the goose, but not for the gander? Get over it - the mythical voter happy with current policies does not exist. Far fewer elected the current BOE. Let's get on with improving education -something the current BOE was NOT focused on. For them, the schools were merely 'economic development tools'.
What part of "forced" reassignment isn't understood?
Mandatory year-round.
Sitting SAS reports on WCPSS reports until 3 days before an election.
Listening to Kathy Truit hop on WPTF Wednesday morning basically saying that if you don't vote for her you're voting for segregation. Which is basically what DFL is suggesting here.
My daughter is in WCPSS...we CHOSE to put her in year round. People were pissed because the school boards seemed to be at odds of their constituents. Court case anyone?
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1704093/state_supreme_court_rules_nc_can_force.html?cat=4
And what's funny if you read the article... "Justice Robert Edmunds Jr. wrote a concurring opinion that said parents who object could still seek to have their children reassigned from a year-round school. Edmunds also said voters could make changes on the local school boards if they were unhappy with decisions.
State Supreme Court Rules NC Can Force Students to Attend Year-Round Schools
Date: January 5, 2009
Raleigh, NC
United States of America
",
This is why they lost...and again...we CHOSE to put our daughter in year-round.
Yes, you are wrong, but that was very well crafted writing and a joy to read. And if the turn into intelligent design nuts, I'll join you. Till then, I'm comfortable that Green Hope and Carpenter might not be so under enrolled that they have to downsize good teachers every year.
Yes it's going to be interesting to see how the anti-reassignment folks are going to carry out their plans without massive reassignments. And those that swore they'd never vote for another bond referendum will now be responsible for seeling it to the public. That should be quite a show.
Who knew parental choice over the direction of their child's education would be so inflammatory.
Let's just say the status quo stayed in charge...and a parent who's child has moved into 4 different schools in 5 years simply decides to go sit at a lunch counter at the school nearest their home. And refuses to leave. And the police come in and forcibly remove them from the school.
It's simply about accountability and a voice. Quit being melodramatic ninnys with the Queen of Jesse Jackson ready to be dealt from the bottom of the deck.
I purposefully did not play the resegregation angle. I think that;s a foregone conclusion, unfortunately. Instead, what I intend to focus on is hypocrisy. These people claimed to be angered about the idea of reassignment. Their about to reassign the whole damn school system. They claimed to be in favoe of school choice, but their policy, BY ITS VERY NATURE, will shutter the magnet programs routinely chosen by thousands of parents all over Wake County. Tyey owe their election to groups that are routinely anti-tax and anti-bond. Yet they cannot possibly fulfill their promises without more taxes and more bonds.
Diversity is dead, tragically.
And Loriac, blanket statements like accusing everyone of the experienced public servants of the current BOE of being uninterested in improving education are baseless and render your opinion essentially valueless here. If you're going to come on the Nettle, you;d better bring something more than that.
I stand by my comment - WCPSS $5M PR budget was focused on getting out the message of 'healthy schools' (note the emphasis on schools, versus students). We have example after example of reassignments done ONLY to move low performing nodes around to hide those test scores so no one school looks bad. We have the SAS report that shows that WCPSS institutionalized low expectations of ED kids. The more I looked into this, the sicker I got. Discussions with Wake Growth Mgmt employees also made clear what their attitude was towards ED kids... bus'em around because they can't possibly be capable of anything! I believe that shows a lack of focus on education. I voted for new board members who will focus on improving the educational opportunity for all children. Let's focus extra resources on the students who need it, instead of busing kids around to hide low performance. YOU, sir, seem rather narrowly focused... I'm sure this new board will at least listen to your request to stay at Lynn Road - sounds like a very rational and reasonable request. Stories of similar appeals to the current board would make you cry. (well, maybe not)
It was very interesting for me to read this post. Thanks for it. I like such themes and everything connected to them. I definitely want to read a bit more soon.
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