I read the Nov. 6 letter accusing the Wake Education Partnership of furthering a conspiracy to hide our low-performing students in functional schools. If any were ever fooled by this conspiracy, they all know by now that our poor, black and Hispanic students are performing substantially less well than the rest. For any concerned that they will somehow lose track, a visit to www.ncpublicschools.org will remind them, whatever our assignment plan may be.

Setting aside the merits of the Partnership's inchoate plan, the question with respect to assignment plans generally is, or should be, "Do they further achievement or undermine it?"

Assignment plans that produce high concentrations of poverty and high degrees of racial isolation undermine achievement. This question is not credibly debatable.

Such a plan is where we were, and may still be, headed. The real conspiracy is the one that tries to clear poor and minority students from otherwise wealthy neighborhood schools and hides the stupidity of this idea behind yammering about "quotas" and crocodile tears for those whose educational deficits will be "hidden" if they attend a functional, low-poverty school.

Neil Riemann

Raleigh