How could the new majority on the Wake County school board have expected that its members could go topsy-turvy on an established, respected school assignment policy, flirting with resegregation of the public schools, and not draw vehement protest? Perhaps last year's district school board elections left the victors under the impression that they had a mandate to change everything about the schools, and unified support in the community to move ahead. If so, these members are under a mistaken impression.
Yes, they won. Yes, they are in the majority and thus can make radical changes if they wish. But school boards are not like legislatures or Congress. Members of these boards are close to their constituents, or should be. They're going to get feedback and they're going to get it quickly from those whom they serve. Sometimes, that "feedback" is unpleasant, as at recent meetings over changes in a school assignment policy that once factored economic diversity into the placement of students.
That policy helped to balance, to some degree, the makeup of individual schools' student bodies. The idea was to not have "poor" schools or "rich" schools, not to have empty schools or overcrowded schools, but to have schools that reflected the diversity of the community itself.
Change agents
Enter the new majority, unified by an ideological opposition to the diversity policy. As the board met to discuss changes in assignment policy, protesters disrupted some sessions, got arrested, held a march in downtown Raleigh and have drawn attention to the changes.
Now the board majority has a solution: fewer meetings. Tuesday, with the usual 5-4 vote, the majority voted to reduce full school board meetings and public hearings to once a month, which is what is required by law. It is a bad decision that may have some results the board hasn't anticipated.
Yes, the conservative majority won't have to listen to critics as often (that's the pesky thing about serving the people). But let's go back to the importance of a school board, a board that makes decisions affecting the lives of the most precious thing people have, their children. School board members have to stay in touch. They thus must be accessible, and cutting back on meetings will make them and their deliberations less so.
Point made
Now, a word about the protests. They have spotlighted a controversial (and in our view, monumentally incorrect) decision to end the diversity policy. Civil disobedience (wherein people peacefully protest and are arrested) has been used honorably by many groups in many causes over the years.
In the case of Wake's school board meetings, however, protesters have made their point. They should recognize when they are hurting their cause as much as they're helping it. Making disruptive protests the rule rather than the exception at school board meetings could, in the long term, diminish their significance and undermine the message.
The majority's decision to cut meetings may be a practical as well as a philosophical mistake. Fewer meetings may, if anything, increase the likelihood of protests at any given meeting. It certainly will give comfort to critics who argue that the majority members are afraid of those who disagree with them. We need more opportunities for discussion and debate, not fewer.
