N.C. legislature to study school diversity's effect

RALEIGH -- The bitter battle over Wake County's move toward neighborhood schools is moving into the hands of state legislators, who could recommend that school districts adopt diversity policies.

One of the last acts of the Democrat-controlled General Assembly was to create a legislative study commission charged with seeing whether diversity helps public schools and whether the state should help it along by changing the way schools are funded.

Republicans wary

But supporters of the Republican school board majority in Wake County see the new drive as an attempt to bash the elimination of longstanding diversity efforts in the state's largest school district.

State Democrats have used the Wake school controversy to mobilize their supporters. They insist the commission will conduct an honest study of the issue.

"Whether you're a Republican or a Democrat, we need to look at what Wake is doing," said state Rep. Rick Glazier, a Cumberland County Democrat who proposed the commission. "This is an issue that is truly important. This is one of the most successful and largest districts in the country making a major change, and the question is why?"

Supporters of the Wake school board majority don't trust the assurances of nonpartisanship. The fight has been heated at the local level, with many Democrats opposing the changes going on in Wake and many Republicans backing the board majority.

Claude Pope, chairman of the Wake County Republican Party, questioned how fair the commission will be considering that the 15 members will be appointed by Gov. Bev Perdue, state House Speaker Joe Hackney of Orange County and state Senate Leader Marc Basnight of Dare County. All three are Democrats.

"You've got Democrats with an agenda to make [the Wake school board] look bad," Pope said. "They're not going to find anything that supports what the school board is doing because they don't want to find anything."

Issue is rising

The issue of school diversity in North Carolina has gotten increased attention in the past few months.

Civil rights activists have alleged that resegregation is occurring in schools in Wayne and New Hanover counties. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board, which abandoned busing for diversity in 2002, is now reconsidering what role diversity should have in student assignments.

Last month, Perdue told the state's legislative black caucus that North Carolina is in a "war" over resegregation. A spokesman said Perdue will sign into law the bill creating the study commission.

"Gov. Perdue firmly believes that children are better prepared when the community inside their school resembles the one outside," said Mark Johnson, a spokesman for Perdue. "When they meet and make friends with people from different economic backgrounds, they learn that everybody doesn't have the same experiences in life."

But it's the fight in Wake County that has drawn the most attention, both locally and nationally.

Democrats rally

David Young, chairman of the state Democratic Party, has cited the actions of the Republican majority on the Wake school board to try to rally volunteers for this fall's election campaign.

The new commission's charge includes seeing what effect diverse schools have on closing the performance gap between white and minority students, as well as the effect on parental involvement and student discipline. The commission will also see how diverse schools do academically compared to schools with homogeneous populations.

From there, the commission is supposed to evaluate how school funding is distributed and possibly recommend changing how money is distributed to encourage diversity efforts.

"You never know what research will say, but if it confirms that diversity is the best way to go, then we need to get that info back to the districts," said state Sen. Charlie Dannelly, a Mecklenburg County Democrat and retired school principal, who sponsored the commission.

School funding changes?

If the research shows there's a clear connection between diversity and student achievement, Glazier wants "direct action" by the state to change how schools are funded. Glazier is vice chairman of the House appropriation committee and chairman of the House appropriations subcommittee on education.

Yevonne Brannon, chairwoman of the Great Schools in Wake Coalition, said she hopes the commission will recommend funding changes that force the school board majority to go back to the diversity policy.

"Sometimes you can't legislate someone's feelings, but you can legislate their behavior," Brannon said.

School board member John Tedesco, who will be the architect of the new assignment plan, said Wake will remain among the state's most integrated and diverse school districts after the move to neighborhood schools.

Supporters of the board majority criticized the planned legislative commission.

"We're going to have a commission that's ideologically driven by what's happening in Wake County," said Terry Stoops, education policy analyst for the John Locke Foundation, a conservative think tank based in Raleigh. "That's unfortunate."

Pope, the chairman of the Wake GOP, argued that most school districts have already done what Wake is planning to do by going with neighborhood schools.

Wake was one of some 70 school districts nationally that balance school enrollments by family income.

"Just because most do it doesn't make it right," said Dannelly, the senator.