Carolina Journal’s David Bass writes today about the growing frustration of some Wake County parents over the latest school system reassignment plan. Parents and students crowded a public hearing this week, and they didn’t mince words (emphasis is mine):
Some of the strongest criticism came from parents with students at Apex High School who were reassigned under the new plan to Athens Drive High School, located inside the Interstate 440 Beltline. Mark Darby, a resident of Churchill Downs in Cary, asked the school board to keep his 16-year-old daughter at Apex High rather than transfer her.
“The only thing that we can see that this move is going to accomplish is to cost more money at a time when we need to be worried about saving every single dollar that we can,†he said.
Darby’s daughter, Becky, told school board members that students should not be moved around to prove a statistic. “I am not a number that can be moved from one school to another to fill a vacancy that shouldn’t be there to begin with,†she said. “I shouldn’t be there because it’s cheaper than doing the right thing.â€
The Wake school board could eliminate the controversy over their busing plan by simply studying the impact on student achievement of the moves made in order to “balance” economic diversity among schools.
Unfortunately, the majority of the school board doesn’t want the results measured. It’s a glaring example of poor stewardship.