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Taft worked to improve public schools
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Taft was a member of the State Board of Education
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The State Board of Education met in Halifax County this month
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Judge Howard Manning declared Halifax the scene of “academic genocide”
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State poured aid and resources into Halifax County schools
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Problems in Halifax are related to poverty
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Poverty led to “low standards and expectations” and a “vicious cycle of failure”
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Wake County’s diversity policy countered these problems
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A Halifax County teacher posted comments on the N&O website
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Those comments may be a glimpse of Wake’s future
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Parents must share the blame
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Kids cannot be held accountable for parental failings
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The schools act on behalf of society at large, overcome problems in the home
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State support in Halifax included intensive retraining of teachers and principals
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Roanoke Rapids residents “don’t have to lose much sleep” over Halifax County schools because they have their own school system
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Roanoke Rapids schools have fewer black and low income students than Halifax County schools
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Unified system in Wake County “has short-circuited the link between school quality and neighborhood wealth”
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Neighborhood schools would resemble neighborhood characteristics
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Neighborhood schools divide the rich and poor
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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.”