Parents decry school diversity policy

Three mayors join Wake CARES in criticizing the county's plan to move 6,432 students

RALEIGH -- The parent group that fought Wake County over mandatory year-round schools is positioning itself as a critic of the school district's student diversity policy that buses primarily poor children to schools with fewer of these students.

Leaders of Wake CARES, backed by three local mayors, held a news conference outside the Wake school district's offices Thursday to blast the new student reassignment proposal as being driven too much by diversity.

Instead of spending money on busing students, school officials should spend that cash to bolster academic programs, Wake CARES leaders said. They repeated the words often used by critics of Wake's efforts to keep schools integrated by family income.

"We would like to see education being returned as the driving force of any policy that comes out of the school board," said Patrice Lee, a co-founder of Wake CARES. "Leave the social agenda and the political agenda to the elected officials like the county commissioners."

School administrators released a reassignment proposal last week that recommends moving 6,432 students to different schools next year. The public has until Jan. 1 to comment.

But school board Vice Chairwoman Beverley Clark stood behind the district's diversity policy. "Very segregated schools is what we're trying to avoid," she said. "If we have a balance, it creates more opportunities for teacher and student success."

Wake CARES became a player this year when it filed a lawsuit that forced the school system to get parental consent to send students to year-round schools. The group is fighting the district's efforts to get the ruling overturned by the state Court of Appeals.

Lee said the group is speaking out because of the complaints of so many parents.

This year's plan includes many moves designed to carry out a new school board policy of trying to make schools in the same part of the county have comparable percentages of low-income and limited-English students.

In western Wake, where Wake CARES draws most of its support, the reassignment proposal would raise the percentage of poor children at several schools. Wake had left those schools alone because they didn't exceed a district limit of 40 percent of their students receiving subsidized lunches -- considered a measure of relative poverty and an indicator of academic performance.

Lee challenged the school district to produce data showing that low-income students in Wake are doing better academically because they're being bused for diversity.

Lee also said the school district should use money now spent on busing to reduce class sizes to help low-income students do better academically.

"We make the effort, and we put the resources in higher-needs schools," Clark said. "But the growth in this community has challenged our budget."

Wake CARES was joined at the news conference by Apex Mayor Keith Weatherly, Garner Mayor Ronnie Williams and Holly Springs Mayor Dick Sears. All three backed the group's lawsuit and have criticized the school district's diversity policies.

"Why should we make schools more alike?" Sears said. "If there's a school that has a problem, we should put more money into it."