For years he’s been a minority voice on the Wake County school board, but yesterday, Ron Margiotta was elected chairman of the board by the new 5-4 majority. The new board didn’t waste time taking action, much to the chagrin of other members. And what about the new members’ key campaign promise to end the current policy of busing kids to achieve economic “balance”? From the News & Observer:
The board quickly took up the district’s diversity policy, which uses busing to ensure balanced populations at each school. Once based on race, those calculations have relied on the poverty of students’ families since 2000.
However, no copies of the proposal on changing the diversity policy were given to members of the public before they were voted on. Instead, an overhead projector showed a copy with the phrase “creating and maintaining a diverse student body” with a line through it. The move to change the policy was sent to committee.
Let’s hope the community pushes the new board to boldly and honestly address the abysmal academic achievement gap between white and minority students. Society has a moral obligation to give every child the opportunity to achieve and become self-supporting, productive members of society. Busing isn’t the answer, and the board has taken a good first step. Re-cutting the budget pie would be an appropriate second step. Existing resources must be moved toward kids who are lagging behind.
