The votes are there, and the Wake County school board majority can on Tuesday give final approval to a student assignment policy that likely will result in the isolation of underachieving students (handicapped by poverty) in some schools. The long-working, nationally respected diversity policy could be history.
The majority - which came to be when successful board candidates in last year's election ran against the diversity policy and year-round schools - would frankly do well to pause, one more time, before taking this action. If they are not willing to reconsider the action based on its wisdom or lack thereof as policy, despite roiling discontent with their actions in the community as a whole, then they need to consider costs.
Yes, on its face, allowing people to attend their neighborhood schools, keeping siblings at the same schools, giving parents a school calendar choice (traditional or year-round) sounds fine. But what about those neighborhood schools that will, because of housing patterns in which people of similar incomes live close to each other, have a large number of disadvantaged students? Board members have indicated more investment in those schools may be necessary. Where will the money come from at a time when all public agencies are having to cut back?
