Death of Kathy Taft

Taft worked to improve public schools

Taft was a member of the State Board of Education

The State Board of Education met in Halifax County this month

Judge Howard Manning declared Halifax the scene of “academic genocide”

State poured aid and resources into Halifax County schools

Problems in Halifax are related to poverty

Poverty led to “low standards and expectations” and a “vicious cycle of failure”

Wake County’s diversity policy countered these problems

A Halifax County teacher posted comments on the N&O website

Those comments may be a glimpse of Wake’s future

Parents must share the blame

Kids cannot be held accountable for parental failings

The schools act on behalf of society at large, overcome problems in the home

State support in Halifax included intensive retraining of teachers and principals

Roanoke Rapids residents “don’t have to lose much sleep” over Halifax County schools because they have their own school system

Roanoke Rapids schools have fewer black and low income students than Halifax County schools

Unified system in Wake County “has short-circuited the link between school quality and neighborhood wealth”

Neighborhood schools would resemble neighborhood characteristics

Neighborhood schools divide the rich and poor

Kids “trapped” in high poverty schools will need to be saved by people like Kathy Taft and Howard Manning but best “not to let them become trapped in the first place.”

The End