The Wake County Public Schools

This morning Raleigh Mayor Meeker criticized the members of the Wake County School Board stating that, in short, they are failing to live up to the dream and the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

A bold statement. 

Here's the article on wral:
http://www.wral.com/news/education/wake_county_schools/story/8951438/

I haven't read all there is to read on this issue and I am afraid I don't know all the facts, but here's what I do know:  I am a product of the Wake County Public School system, and I went to magnet schools for 11 of my 13 years.  My elementary school was actually in the best part of town, but my middle and high schools were in the worst parts of town.  My brother got body slammed by a bunch of gang members from the projects across from our middle school.  He was 12.  Kids got beaten up for their shoes.  They had to lock us in with chain link fences.  It was not ideal.

I believe my education was superior to what I could have gotten elsewhere in the county.  I sailed through undergrad and did well in law school, and I attribute a lot of that to the fact that the magnet schools taught me how to work hard and how to study.  But here's the thing.  I don't think I'd put my daughter in the magnet school system as it was then.  I'm just not sure it was worth it. 

It's true that the schools were integrated if you looked at the numbers, but news flash for everyone yelling about re-segregation, my classes were not integrated!  Magnet schools fix the numbers, but they do not fix the integration problem. 

Plus, the magnet schools had gotten completely out of hand.  When I went through, there were several magnet elementary schools, three magnet middle schools and one magnet high school.  The attraction was more strenuous and advanced academic classes and that was it.  I was mystified the first time someone asked me what kind of magnet school I had gone to.  When this school board made the decision to return to neighborhood schools, there were magnet tracks, arts magnets, museum magnets, and all kinds of other stuff that made no sense if integration is the end goal.  People pay serious money to live in the school district for Daniels Middle and Broughton High School.  They were both magnets!  White kids from North Raleigh were getting bussed in to attend them.  If the end goal is integration, that doesn't make a lick of sense!

Logical, thinking people are afraid to speak out in support of the school board's decision for fear they will be called racist.  I'll be honest, I'm afraid of it too.  But, those who know me know there is not an ounce of racism in my heart.  I'm willing to speak out in support of the school board's decision for one simple reason:  what the school board was doing to integrate the schools was not integrating the schools in a meaningful way. 

My mom said it best--asking a six year old to ride a bus for an hour to live out your notion of social engineering is a pretty tall order.