about school situation (Raleigh, Greensboro, Cary: schools, property tax, live)
Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, CaryThe Triangle Area
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It's too easy to "gerrymander" some wealthy districts in there. Which, I suspect, is what Margiotta was planning all along.
Yes. That was my fear, too. I grew up in Fayetteville which has a LOT of poverty. When I was in school there were 3 school systems. The Fayetteville City Schools, The Cumberland County Schools, and the Fort Bragg Schools (which didn't go thru high school). The county and city systems were pretty economically diverse and racially diverse although I imagine the county was whiter. The county and city systems were desegregated with busing in 1972, I believe after Judge McMillan's ruling in the courts in Charlotte. I was moved out of my neighborhood school a couple of months into 2nd grade (showing my age) and assigned to a school considerably farther away. Nobody minded. The kids didn't mind. The parents didn't mind. As a kid i had no problem being in a school with minorities and not just white kids from my neighborhood. Looking back at it I am really glad to have been part of racially and socially diverse schools after.
I have no problem with smaller diverse systems but I fear the gerrymandered wealthy schools and their counterpart of impoverished schools.
I'm sure that is a reason for some transplants. I wouldn't want to generalize about why people move.
Other reasons might be job relocation, less hectic pace, weather among others.
Not too sure that providing neighborhood schools recreates some of the COL issues associated with living in the NY Metropolitan area, for instance. Probably has a lot more to do with being proximity to high paying jobs.
Growth brings new culture, jobs and conveniences to an area. It also bring growing pains.
One of the reasons for the high taxes in the NY metro area are pension/unions. For example, on Long Island, teachers are unionized, as are police. Salaries for teachers and police on Long Island are also much higher then salaries in NYC. Another reason for the high taxes is to subsidize the MTA (Metropolitan Transit Authority).
Not saying it is the answer but dividing the school district into smaller districts would not result in the taxes at the rate they are in NY metro area.
*THIS* This is what I have a problem with most. It took months of research to understand my options wrt schools for neighborhoods close to RTP. I did this with 2 kids under 5 while working full time and arranging for a cross country move. I'm not lazy or stupid. Part of my process was coming here and asking questions. Sentiments like this were very discouraging.
You can say that you embrace new people, but this is a very us vs them attitude. No empathy at all? Really?
I don't have time to go research the way wake county schools get their taxes. I don't honestly care if it's Cary or Wake County school system (which seems something that you're very focused on). Either way I'm paying the same taxes into the school system as the next guy and plan on doing it for the rest of my life. I'm not trying to game a system or send my kid to school at the expense of someone else. All I want is equal access to the system as the guy next to me, which I will never get. Even 5 years from now, if there's a tie to break with a capacity school, he will get preference. I don't like it. Pretty sure there's no understanding I can gain about the system that will make me like it.
Also - someone has created a school system that is very hard to understand. You may not have done it personally but the people you elected, did. I think there's plenty of evidence to support how confusing it is for people new to the area. The fact that new people don't understand it isn't all on the new people.
20 years from now I don't plan on complaining about the new "new people" either. Promise
Again, not sure why you think I have no empathy. I empathize. When I moved here, I moved to Cary Park, and my base school was Highcroft (MPES wasn't built yet). Highcroft was a multi-track YR school because the area was so crowded (there were 11 kindergarten classes that year). My traditional calendar option (8 years ago) was... Weatherstone. But I had choices. I could either move to another neighborhood, send my kid to Weatherstone or try year round. I've since moved, but nothing has really changed. People who move to that same exact area are dealing with the same exact thing.
What I don't have empathy for is an attitude like the one you displayed when you said you don't have time to research the way WCPSS get their taxes, and you don't care if it's a Cary or a Wake County school system. Yet you have time to complain about how it's confusing and unfair. You do have equal access to the school system as the guy next to you. No one is saying your kid can't attend school in the school system. You just may not be able to go to the same exact school. I can't send my kids to the same school as my neighbors either. They go to a magnet school. We applied and didn't get in (it's completely lottery based). We pay the same taxes.
I'm not a big fan of WCPSS. Again, I made the choice to deal with it, because I needed to live where I live for practical reasons. More power to you if you want to try to change it in the next school board election, when you get to vote for ONE of the SEVEN seats on the board. The other 6 seats will be elected by folks who don't give a rat's behind (pronounced, "beeee-hii-und" because I've been in the South for a while now) about people on this side of town or outside the beltline.
One of the reasons for the high taxes in the NY metro area are pension/unions. For example, on Long Island, teachers are unionized, as are police. Salaries for teachers and police on Long Island are also much higher then salaries in NYC. Another reason for the high taxes is to subsidize the MTA (Metropolitan Transit Authority).
Not saying it is the answer but dividing the school district into smaller districts would not result in the taxes at the rate they are in NY metro area.
With smaller districts, we may well wind up with taxes much higher than we have now. And district perks, like district supplements, pension supplements, etc.
Where does it end? I have about zero desire to pay more taxes because new people want NOT to have YR schools and insist their kids all go to Mills Park, Highcroft, or Davis Drive.
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Yep higher taxes are on the horizon still a joke for these people who faced 12k to 14k in taxes but they are making such a positive impact on the area.
With smaller districts, we may well wind up with taxes much higher than we have now. And district perks, like district supplements, pension supplements, etc.
Where does it end? I have about zero desire to pay more taxes because new people want NOT to have YR schools and insist their kids all go to Mills Park, Highcroft, or Davis Drive.
See, this rubs me the wrong way. I would never think this or say this, because I find it really divisive. But I would say that "I have zero desire to pay more taxes because people want NOT to have YR schools and insist their kids all go to the school closest to them." Subtle, yet big difference (IMO).
With smaller districts, we may well wind up with taxes much higher than we have now. And district perks, like district supplements, pension supplements, etc.
Where does it end? I have about zero desire to pay more taxes because new people want NOT to have YR schools and insist their kids all go to Mills Park, Highcroft, or Davis Drive.
I did not say I was in favor of breaking up the district. I am just speaking to the tax burden you and the other poster were discussing.
However, I do believe we will all wind up with higher taxes either way because the State no longer considers education a priority and if want to maintain our district ( not even improve it) we will need to make up these short falls before the negative impacts become too great.
Oh and to all those who own a home and ever want to sell it, if the district tanks, so will your home value.
Yep higher taxes are on the horizon still a joke for these people who faced 12k to 14k in taxes but they are making such a positive impact on the area.
Right because only transplants from the NE move here.
it was so much easier when we just told all the relocators who just "had to move to Cary", "Don't worry about the school because you'll be reassigned every 2-3 years to another school. And both schools will be just fine."
It's about expectations, and always will be. There's a great idea that the level of conflict = level of missed expectations.
Toss on that WCPSS has widely different issues from downtown Raleigh to west of Davis Drive to east of Knightdale.
I don't know that I've ever seen anyone look into the actual machinations, but I suspect it would be a vote of the County Commissioners that would disband the county-wide system. And that won't happen. What is Cary going to do - declare independence, then go build 50 schools overnight, and do it all without the huge $$ they get from the County property tax that they would still have to pay?
Did I mention the NE in the post. Wow talk a about self absorped New Yorker
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