Wake County school board chairman Ron Margiotta is quoted in the Aug. 30 N&O as saying, "Magnet schools will be here forever as far as I'm concerned." He also believes that it is wrong to bus inner-city children out of those schools, saying, "Why should students be bused out of schools across the street from them so that some rich kid can come from Cary, or from my district?"
At best, these contradictory statements reveal Margiotta's fundamental misunderstanding of what a magnet school is and what it does. At worst, they reveal a more sinister motive of appeasing magnet fans by claiming to support magnets while simultaneously turning them into the high poverty schools the magnet program was designed to eliminate. Given the current board majority's disdain for diverse schools, the latter explanation seems more likely.
Michele Goldman
