RALEIGH -- It's time for bold reforms from the newly elected, reform-minded Wake County school board members. Tinkering around the margins of the current system means that disadvantaged students would continue to achieve at lower levels than the state average.
Wake County's disadvantaged students scored lower than disadvantaged students in Charlotte and Asheville and in Guilford, Cumberland, New Hanover and Buncombe counties. And opposition to the school board's busing-for-diversity policy comes not only from the large majorities of those voting who elected the new board members, but also in Wake County at large. Polling data show that Wake voters oppose the policy by a margin of 70 percent to 24 percent.
Bold reform means abandoning the failed top-down, central office planning model in which parents, teachers, principals and students often feel that they are victims of school board and central office decisions. Instead, the district needs a bottom-up system that gives parents, teachers, principals and students real decision-making power.
Under ideal conditions, all parents would have the power to send their children to any school in the district. No questions asked, no long forms to fill out and no bureaucratic harassment. Parents who want a neighborhood school would have one. Parents who want to take advantage of a magnet school or other unique educational opportunity would get one. Parents who want a year-round schedule (or traditional schedule) would get one. This also means existing schools would be able to expand to meet growing demand.
The money for each child would follow the student, with more money following economically disadvantaged students. For example, the current state funding formula increases the amount allocated for economically disadvantaged students by about 10 percent. Additional local money could make the per student funding for disadvantaged students even greater. Each school's budget would be determined by adding the amounts that each student brings to that school. If a school fails to educate a child to the parents' satisfaction, the school loses the student and the money.
Creating choices for parents and space for students is critical. This is accomplished by allowing teachers, principals and even parent groups to start new schools and design unique curricula, within state mandates, that they believe best serve their students.
These new schools could be housed in existing buildings -- several small schools in the same building -- or in renovated storefronts. Let's bury the idea that a school is a building. A school is anywhere teachers and students come together for learning. Whereas the current neighborhood school concept limits parents to one school within a neighborhood, this new system would offer parents a choice among several different schools within the same neighborhood.
Neighborhood schools require less transportation. Thus more resources would be available for students who want to attend a school outside their neighborhood. Economic diversity would be maintained by guaranteeing disadvantaged students transportation to any school in the district. Magnet schools would thrive because more transportation options could be provided for magnet school students.
By moving decision-making down to the school level, many central office functions could be restructured or reduced. The accounting system would be adjusted to reflect a school budget and spending based on the number of students that attend each school. District curriculum staff would be minimized since curriculum decisions would be made at the school level. Overall these changes could lead to substantial savings that could be used to increase per pupil spending.
A bottom-up system must have an accountability mechanism that will provide parents with an objective measurement of student learning. The district should adopt a nationally norm-referenced exam such as the Basic Achievement Skills Individual Screener (BASIS) or the Stanford Achievement Test Series (Stanford10). Results of these exams will allow parents to compare schools across the district and the nation.
Top-down educational systems are failing to educate students across North Carolina. High dropout rates in many districts, for example, are unacceptable. The new Wake school board members have a chance to improve the educational achievement for all students and become a national model for how school districts ought to operate.
Michael Sanera is research director and local government analyst for the John Locke Foundation.
