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Two takes on Wake Co. Schools on MLK day

Post on January 18, 2011 by 3 Comments »

Speaking at the annual Triangle Martin Luther King Jr. Interfaith Prayer Breakfast Monday, Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker said the Wake School Board was “way off track.” Meeker received a standing ovation when he urged those in attendance to “stand up for what’s right” and oppose an assignment plan that favors neighborhood schools over socio-economic diversity.

By Monday afternoon, board member John Tedesco responded with an appearance on the Fox Business Network. Tedesco told host Gerri Willis that what many have called a civil rights issue was in fact a “money-saving issue.”

To hear Tedesco’s full interview with Fox, including his remarks about U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, click below:


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Comments (Closed):3

  1. Bill
    January 18, 2011 at 9:06 am

    Read the following this morning, work well with Mr. Tedesco’s comments:

    American schools are more segregated by race and class today than they were on the day Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed, 43 years ago. The average white child in America attends a school that is 77 percent white, and where just 32 percent of the student body lives in poverty. The average black child attends a school that is 59 percent poor but only 29 percent white. The typical Latino kid is similarly segregated; his school is 57 percent poor and 27 percent white.

    Overall, a third of all black and Latino children sit every day in classrooms that are 90 to 100 percent black and Latino.

    http://civilrightsproject.ucla.edu/research/k-12-education/integration-and-diversity/reviving-the-goal-of-an-integrated-society-a-21st-century-challenge/orfield-reviving-the-goal-mlk-2009.pdf

  2. Latisha
    January 18, 2011 at 10:04 am

    “……where just 32 percent of the student body lives in poverty.”

    One-third of the students are in poverty!!! And we’re being told that’s not diverse enough.

  3. JeffS
    January 18, 2011 at 2:16 pm

    John, you’ve gotten quite good at pointing out the problems with the system. Unfortunately, you have yet to provide a plan to deal with any of them.

    Your first draft school zones did not provide the promised neighborhood schools. You talk about saving money by reducing busing, but provide no numbers for how that might happen. At the same time, you remove year-round seats with no consideration for how this will increase costs to the system. No one is fooled by the cost-savings smokescreen.

    You did manage to get the entire county pissed off over the yet to be determined plan, and hire a Superintendent with no practical experience. Those weren’t exactly wins though, were they?