RALEIGH -- Federal civil rights investigators want to know everything from how many Wake County students were bused for socioeconomic diversity to the reasons school board members dropped the use of diversity in student assignment.
Wake school administrators are now trying to answer a lengthy list of questions about student assignment and academic achievement asked by the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights.
The information, which was requested Dec. 7 and will be turned over next week, should also answer the lingering question of just how many of Wake's 143,000 students were assigned for the purpose of balancing the percentage of low-income students at individual schools. Supporters of the now-discarded diversity policy have tried to downplay the number while critics have argued it affected far higher numbers than generally known.
"Obviously they feel it's important to determine that number and why we made the change," said school board member Keith Sutton, who voted against eliminating the diversity policy.
Federal officials have the option of removing Wake's more than $70 million a year in federal aid.
Wake was the largest school district in the nation to use socioeconomic diversity as a factor in assigning students to schools. Several years ago, administrators estimated that only 3 percent of Wake's students, primarily those living in Southeast Raleigh, were assigned based on their family income. But they've been unwilling in recent years to provide an updated figure.
Supporters of the diversity policy, including the state NAACP, whose complaint led to the federal investigation, have cited the 3 percent figure to downplay the idea that there was widespread use of what critics called "forced busing."
Critics of the diversity policy, who backed four new school board members because of their promise to change the assignment policy, don't believe it's only 3 percent of the enrollment. They argue that if it were only 3 percent, then diversity policy supporters wouldn't be so angry about the change.
"I just don't think 3 percent is reality," said Kathleen Brennan, a co-founder of Wake CARES, a group that wants neighborhood schools. "It's way too low."
The questions
Among the Office for Civil Rights' requests to Wake:
Explain how the student assignment policy was changed and what rationale was used to eliminate the use of socioeconomic diversity.
Produce information on the race and income of students reassigned by the school board for the 2010-11 school year. In addition to alleging racial bias in eliminating the diversity policy, the NAACP claims some of the reassignments made for 2010-11 were discriminatory.
Turn over copies of all studies, reports and analyses used by the school board since the elimination of the diversity-based assignment plan.
Produce copies of all records turned over toAdvancED, the Georgia-based accrediting organization that is also reviewing the school board because of another state NAACP complaint.
Jim Bradshaw, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Education, says the department doesn't comment on investigations in progress.
Sutton had cited the federal investigation to successfully argue against the school board considering reassigning more than 6,000 students, many of whom are from Southeast Raleigh, to schools closer to their homes for the 2011-12 school year.
"Are we concerned about the message we'd send?" Sutton asked during Tuesday's board meeting.
School board member John Tedesco, who voted to drop the diversity policy, said he's not concerned that the investigation could go against Wake.
"There are 14,000 school districts in the country, and more than 13,000 of them use neighborhood schools," Tedesco said. "There's nothing we're doing that's radical."
