Locke Clan Chieftain Hood and Creative Loafing’s own Tara Servatius get to together to puzzle out where the hell all the high school students are going in Charlotte-Mecklenburg. Hint: It ain’t to college.

Here’s the dirty little secret CMS does not want you to know: Some middle schools churn out entire classes of rising 9th graders with just about zero chance of ever graduating high school. The day these students hit HS, their teachers will tell you when no one from the Ed Center is looking, they are at least a year, often two, below where they need to be to do HS work. Yet when they drop out, they are never missed!

Magic!