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Diversity rule in Wake County school district, integrated schools, parents’ report income levels, low income students, rising test scores, standardized tests above grade level, maintain diversity
We went to our first open house tonight at our base school and the first thing my husband said when we got home was "Wow, it was nice seeing people we actually know at school".
Now see....I think just the opposite. I've felt more welcomed and know more folks at our Magnet school then at our base elementary...but at the same time, the ones I know from there we still see.
Magnets are not for everyone, they don't pretend to be.
My problem with the magnet system is that only certain children are able to get advanced or special programs. Some people apply and are denied because of their socio-economic status. Some families can't make it work. I know that if I wasn't a stay at home mom, my kids would most likely not have been able to attend the magnet they did. No bus service and it was not located anywhere near where my husband's job is (or where mine most likely would be). How many people have 2 hours a day that they can spend driving their kids to and from school?
So unless you can make the sacrifices or are wealthy enough to live in the base areas of some of the magnets you are denied access to certain programs. (of course the demagnetization of Root and Olds has taken care of some of the latter) So much for equity in our school system.
However, if I were to take your thoughts and extrapolate them out to the nth degree, then that cashier at Kroger should be subsidized into the $500K house in Cary because it's not fair that they have to live in a higher crime area since they have lower paying jobs.
Very bad analogy on many levels.
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I know I sound like a bigot and a snob but honestly, I'm not. I think we just have to accept the fact that some people will have better jobs/make more money than others. Instead of trying to homogenize the schools in order to equalize the test scores, why not try to put programs in place to attract quality teachers to the underperforming schools? After school enrichment programs (paid for by the savings in not bussing these kids). Programs to entice parents to become involved in their neighborhood school and their child's education.
It's not as much bigotry as it is naivety coupled with selfishness. As a person with a "better" job who is also a parent I think I can accurately speak on the subject. You're not alone though, I believe many parents are this way when the topic is what their children are entitled to. Why can't they offer incentives to attract the best teachers to schools in low income districts rather than diversify? If they did, the topic of the threads would be "Why do my kids get stuck with the lower performing educators just because my husband has a good job".
As a society we're selfish and I believe ANY effort of the school system aimed at improving lower performing or lower socioeconomic areas is going to always be seen as a resource given at the expense of the wealthier population.
Am I going to have to bring up the iPhone twice in one day?
As far as I know, most if not all Magnet schools are located in poorer areas. I know the one I worked at was located in a VERY run down area. So I don't think being wealthy has anything to do with being able to send you kids to Magnet schools. All the kids had busing at my school. They would pick kids up in Fuquay at 6:00 AM in order to get them to school on time.
I agree with you NChomesomeday. My children are in wake county schools for a few years now. These are county schools so all schools get the same money and teacher pay. I disagree with the busing unless voluntary and most of the lower income parents would prefer their kids went to a neighborhood school that is on par with others financially (which they are). Kids should be going to neighborhood schools and staying there unless parent wants otherwise. All these adults making decisions got to. Anyways now there are too many new students to keep this up (most by the way low-income) they build too many homes and no schools with them here. The developers and real estate industry run the elected officials.
Any way you paint it, Neighborhood schools are just a great way to make sure the children of wealthier areas never have to mingle with children from poor areas of town. WCPSS is a county school system and people pining over the idea of neighborhood schools don't seem to grasp the county school system concept.
Ok, so I'm painted by some as an outsider who has no business judging the WCPSS. Fine, you are all entitled to your opinions and since you support the WCPSS philosophy, I sense some digging in of heels to make sure you let me know I'm talking out of my hat.
Yet, there are some "insiders" here on this thread who agree with me. Are you discounting them as just another disgruntled family? I'm happy for the people on this thread for whom the system is working. I suspect (key word, SUSPECT--I have no proof), that WCPSS supporters are in the minority.
I also find it interesting that many of you slam me for being an outsider and for forming an opinion based on as much research as I'm able to do from 700 miles away, yet I've seen many of you slam others who post on this forum who are not happy with their school choice and you slam them for NOT doing their research. Wouldn't I be foolish if I just blindly took what was on the WCPSS website as gospel? Do any of you take what you read as gospel? Anywhere? Even a "trusted" news source? I don't.
Further, I find it interesting that some of the people who are most supportive of the philosophy of WCPSS do not yet have children. Even though I had a terrible experience with bussing from my childhood, as a young, liberal, single and childless adult, I would probably have wholeheartedly endorsed the WCPSS philosophy. I know that, for some of you it's different, but for many, many parents, life, opinions and attitudes CHANGE when you have children. I'm a mother bear--I want the best for MY children. I put my family first. I feel for those not as fortunate, but other than donating my time at battered women's shelters, having my kids work in soup kitchens and perform community service (above and beyond what little the schools require for graduation), being second in command at our local food cuboard, etc., as well as donating money to worthy charitable causes, I just can't solve everyone's problems. So I focus on my family first and do what I feel is best for them. I live in this town in MA with ridiculously high property taxes and to be truthful, I'm not overly fond of it. It's a nice town, very low crime (city-data ranks it as a "30"!), historical, charming, pretty, etc. The people are ok (and very supportive of the schools!). I have some friends here but there are also quite a few I consider very pretentious. But we remained here for almost 11 years because of the schools and my kids. And now that we're thinking of relocating so we can meet some of OUR long term financial goals (retirement, building back our financial reserves, etc), I want to do it with as little detriment to my children as I can manage.
If you think that makes me a bigot, classist, naive, ignorant Yankee, then, like NRG, I guess I'm done with this thread, too.
Some states in the North, for example NY and PA, have schools systems that are run on the town or village level rather than the county level, as it is in most of NC. I grew up in such a small town in NY. Town people were proud of their schools and parental involvement was good. I think it is a least a bit scary for some parents to move to a county where the school system is so large. We moved to Chapel Hill this summer and our daughter started elementary school in one of the public schools here. The family involvement in the school is amazing. The PTA raises ~$100 per child/year, which goes toward supporting the teachers and offering school enrichment programs. Parent volunteers work lots of hours at the school in many capacities. Families pretty much live within 2 miles of the schools so it is easy for parents to stop by the school. That parental contribution to the school would probably greatly decrease if the children were bused far away. I'm not saying that neighborhood schools are the best in all situations, just that when they work, they can be quite remarkable.
Some states in the North, for example NY and PA, have schools systems that are run on the town or village level rather than the county level, as it is in most of NC. I grew up in such a small town in NY. Town people were proud of their schools and parental involvement was good. I think it is a least a bit scary for some parents to move to a county where the school system is so large. We moved to Chapel Hill this summer and our daughter started elementary school in one of the public schools here. The family involvement in the school is amazing. The PTA raises ~$100 per child/year, which goes toward supporting the teachers and offering school enrichment programs. Parent volunteers work lots of hours at the school in many capacities. Families pretty much live within 2 miles of the schools so it is easy for parents to stop by the school. That parental contribution to the school would probably greatly decrease if the children were bused far away. I'm not saying that neighborhood schools are the best in all situations, just that when they work, they can be quite remarkable.
I think you summed it up well, Alice. It's one of the reasons the CH schools are so attractive and that CH/Carrboro is still #1 on my list of places to live should we ever get down there! But we might just as well wind up in Wake, depending on jobs and there are certainly great neighborhoods that I visited on my trips down there as well as ones I've read about here. I would just put my kids in Catholic schools should we wind up inside Wake Co borders.
My oldest started school in Fairfax Cty VA. When we moved to MA, I couldn't believe how small the school system was, or that everything was town based. But there wasn't any bussing in Fairfax Cty (at least not where we were and I'm fairly sure the entire county revolved around neighborhood schools). I think county-wide school systems can work and there are some positives. Fairfax Cty Schools had tremendous resources. But they are governed very differently than WCPSS and perhaps there is something the school board could learn from Fairfax County?
Waterboy--Some of the magnets are in poor areas, but not all. Root, Olds, Joyner, Wiley, Broughton, Daniels, and Brooks are some of the magnets that are not in low income areas. Root and Olds are being demagnetized but the others aren't. They shipped a node of low income kids out of Joyner this year to make room for the brand new development across the street. The first two homes are on the market for $750K and up.
There are low income areas being helped by the magnet program, but there are 'wealthier' areas that have them too. Other parts of the county have more poverty than western ITB yet they have no magnets. Eastern Wake County schools are mostly all over 60% F&R yet they get no special treatment.
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