Thank you for comparing the two extremes in the Wake County's schools conflict, as represented by Ron Margiotta and the Rev. William Barber. Your Sept. 7 front-page article, however, barely scratched the surface of Margiotta's previous school board experience or why he stated "We no longer wanted people bused" in Wake County. You see, Margiotta's former school district in Ridgefield Park, N.J. has four schools and does not bus its 2,300 students within its 2 square miles.
Ridgefield Park is in Bergen County, which has 74 school districts. You would do your readers a great service by analyzing the pros and cons of this type of school districting. How do minority and poor students fare in Ridgefield Park and Bergen County? Are there affluent districts? Poor districts? Minority districts? How do the test scores compare across the districts? This information would either support or refute Margiotta's claim that his goals for Wake schools would not bring back segregation or further erode minority academic performance.
At the very least, every time you write that Margiotta was on the Ridgefield Park school board, please follow with the phrase, "a 2-square mile district with four schools."
