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Chapel Hill is not part of Wake County schools. It's in Orange County. SO let's take them out of the equation.
Yes, the fear is that we are going to go back to schools that are divided racially and socio-economically. Only time will tell how that will play out. But we had about 20% of our student body bused in from Raleigh last year and these kids were exhausted from getting on the bus at 6 a.m. Yes, 6 a.m., and they get to school around 7:30 between the commute and all the stops the bus makes. These kids were exhausted in school all day! So, is that really the solution? Most of them are now in suburban schools that are closer to their homes but still too much of a commute for my blood.
One of the ways they are trying to remedy this is thru the magnet schools. If you are in a high performing area, they make it much easier for you to get your child into a magnet, so that your child's seat then becomes available as a "choice school" for a child from a low performing school. The question is, how many people really want to send their child on that 1 hour bus ride to the better school? It's more of a win for the kid going to the magnet because they get the benefit of what the magnet offers and probably have parents who can get them there in a timely manner.
The people who are the unhappiest are those uppermiddle class folks who ended up in a middle performing node - they dont' get the best neighborhood schools, but they aren't getting into the magnet either because no one wants a seat at their school.
This is all very confusing even if you live here. I'm realizing now that because we live in a high performing node, my kids pretty much have carte blanche for magnet high schools, which we'll look into when the time comes (we'd rather do Catholic, but we'll see).
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