Alex Jones: The importance of school diversity

The “Margiotta School Board” was a disaster for Wake County. Diverse schools were key to leveling outcomes upward. It is therefore troubling that the new school board has not reversed Ron Margiotta’s handiwork (“Wake buses fewer students for diversity,” Aug. 16 news article).

The evidence is strong: Socioeconomic diversity works. Mixing low-income children with middle-class kids improves the former’s performance without diminishing that of the latter. Walking away from this formula is a dangerous gamble.

The other strategies rest on often-murky evidence and are not guaranteed success.

As a Wake County student in the 1990s, I experienced the disruption of reassignment. I understand the impulse to avoid it. But low-income children have a right to equal opportunity, and backsliding on diversity is the wrong way to go.

This story was originally published August 19, 2015 at 4:57 PM with the headline "Alex Jones: The importance of school diversity."