You Think Wake County School Reassignment is Bad?

If you think Wake County School reassignment is bad, be glad you don't live in Chicago.

Since 2005, dozens of Chicago's public schools have been closed and thousands of students reassigned to campuses outside their neighborhoods - and often across gang lines - as part of Renaissance 2010, a program launched by Mayor Richard Daley

So imagine this: Your kid is caught up in a reassignment that puts him and a group of his classmates who happen to belong to, let's say the RED gang, in a school mostly attended by members of, oh let's say the BLUE gang.

That's crossfire that NO parent would want their kid caught in.
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Crystal Ball Knew About Recession??

A reader of the News & Observer observed that a "letter-writer criticized Wake County schools for missing the mark on 2009 enrollment forecasts, which were used as a basis for the 2006/07 bond referendum. Somehow (back in the day when the Dow was approaching 12,000, the school system was growing by 6,000 students per year and unemployment was half of what it is today), the school system was supposed to forecast our current recession and the effect it would have on student population growth." She further states that she would have liked to borrow such a crystal ball "before my 401(k) took a nosedive."

Very well said!

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Wake vs Charlotte-Mecklenburg School Policies for Disadvantaged Families

Much has been said in recent months about which policy is better at assisting disadvantaged students in the county school system: Wake County School System (WCPSS) with its reassignment program based on family income and a heavy reliance on bussing at the cost of fractured communities in the name of diversity, or Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) with its increased spending on education for the academic needs of low-income students, and community based schools which help to foster community harmony.

Reassignment vs better spending

The Sunday (02/08/2009) edition of The News & Observer has a front page article Whose Schools Work Better? subtitled "Wake disperses low-income students with busing; Charlotte gives high-poverty schools extra money."

The article seems swayed towards having the reader believe that Wake County's solution is better. Consider the graphics within the paper edition of the article:

1. Even though WCPSS exceeds CMS in passing math or reading EOGs by 9.4% overall, the bar graph illustrates that the difference for black students was only 1.8% higher for WCPSS, and for low-income students only 1.3% higher for WCPSS. The difference for Hispanic students was actually 0.4% lower for WCPSS. As the article states, "[T]here's little difference in how minority and low-income students are doing in either school district."
2. In the "By the Numbers" table, funding from the county for WCPSS is 90% of the county funding for CMS; an indicator that Mecklenburg County is spending more for education.
3. Even though WCPSS has 18% fewer bus riders than CMS in the table, and CMS spends 20% more per student for bussing than WCPSS, the bussing cost per mile is 4% greater for WCPSS.
4. The table also tries to show WCPSS superiority by claiming greater SAT scores by only 5% and high school graduation rates greater by 18%.
5. That the article tries to demonstrate the benefits of the WCPSS diversity policy by illustrating in the circle graph that the number of schools with a passing rate of state exams above 60 percent is 83% for WCPSS vs 46.5% of CMS schools is debatable.
   

Other numbers to look at

Whether or not The News & Observer's article sufficiently justifies which, between reassignment or greater spending in high poverty neighborhood schools, is the better method, there are other numbers that can be telling.

It may seem that one indicator of which is the better way to educate our children is to look at the job rates between the counties. After all, what do our educated kids do after leaving the school system? They get jobs, of course. Granted many who graduate from school may go off to college in another state, and some who leave school may get jobs out of state or may even remain unemployed.

According to the Employment Security Commission of North Carolina, the employment rates for this past December for Mecklenburg County was 91.7%. The county had a labor force of 447,953 in December, and 410,948 of them had jobs.

Wake County, on the other hand, had a labor force of 439,480 and 412,468 of them were employed. This rate of 93.9% represents a difference of only 2.2 percentage points from Mecklenburg.

Conclusion

The school systems and their families may never agree on the best way to educate the next generation of future salaried employees and wage earners in Wake and Mecklenburg Counties. Is reassignment in the name of diversity better than spending more in high-poverty schools? Who can tell. But numbers can be revealing.

Let's "Do the Math," as they say, shall we?

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Overcrowding Expected at Several Wake County Traditional Schools

This morning The News & Observer reported that the following elementary schools would feel the most significant overcrowding as measured by a percentage of capacity:

153% Olds
132% Underwood
127% Dillard Drive
125% Hunter
122% Cary
122% Bugg

One hundred and fifty three percent of capacity. That's over half. So a school with, say, 16 grade level teachers would need to add eight new teachers and two to three teacher assistants to handle the crowd. They'd have to find room for five to eight additional classrooms via converting teachers' work areas, the gym, the media center, the cafeteria, the computer lab, the art or music room, the broom closet, or by adding modular units.

Those schools gaining a fifth to a third more students would face similar dilemmas.

Myth:
The Wake County Board of Education, (BOE) is trying to punish parents and students by making the transition back to traditional schools as unbearable as possible.

Theory:
I don't believe the BOE has little better to do than to plot revenge on the populace. I think the School Board is bound by budgetary restrictions that hamper necessary changes. It costs money to convert 22 schools to Year Round and this late in the game, much of that money had probably already been spent or was allocated.

It was most likely not an option to abort the conversion, specially considering the fallout when the 2007-2008 budget is looked at and the BOE has to answer to the lost funds due to a halt in the production.

Considering the possibility that those 22 schools may have eventually converted in the coming years anyway due to undeniable growth trends this county has seen, I couldn't blame the Board for wrapping up the expenditures in the nearly completed conversion, even if it forced them to scramble to fulfill their commitments to the parents wanting to remain traditional.

Face it - Here We Are. Pointing fingers will help nobody at this stage. Work with your Board as they struggle to make ends meet with overcrowded (and undercrowded) schools, teacher and other resource shortages, and hammered bus schedules. I may be in the minority with this belief, but I feel that the Wake County Board of Education is on the right track in their attempts to make the system work for ALL our kids. Let's cut them a break, shall we, and let them attend to the matters at hand.
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Wake County Judge Blocks Year Round Schools

Well, Wake County parents, you got what you wanted. I hope you're prepared to stand at the bus stop with your toddler in the dark at 6:15 AM, or to eat dinner with your child at 8:00 PM if your traditional calendar school goes to split shifts.
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