Wake schools shouldn’t neglect diversity as system grows

The Wake County school board’s membership understands the need for economic and racial diversity in public schools. That’s absolutely true. But board member Keith Sutton, whose district includes a larger number of lower-income areas, rightly is chagrined that some schools in such areas seem to lag in reading proficiency while others in more affluent areas have better scores, sometimes much better. In the school year just passed, Wake County’s 171 schools included 50 where more than half of all students received federally subsidized lunches.

That’s upset some parents and interested school supporters who believe the board isn’t putting enough energy into diversity efforts, the general goal of which is to ensure that the county doesn’t have a large number of schools with those subsidized lunches that reflect a large concentration of children from low-income families.

The Wake board, excepting a brief period of Republican control from 2009 to 2011, has historically tried to have a diverse system wherein schools reflect a broad base of students.

But the construction of schools and the corresponding need to fill them – the case with three schools in a draft of the 2017-18 assignment plan – have thrown off diversity goals, with the board’s priority a need to move students from neighborhoods fairly convenient to new schools to fill them. The hope is, as one school system official said, not to impact “thousands and thousands of students.”

That’s not a bad goal, but the system must not lose sight of the importance of diversity in school assignments, because that diversity, reflecting society itself, benefits all children.

This story was originally published September 7, 2016 at 6:52 PM with the headline "Wake schools shouldn’t neglect diversity as system grows."