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Both of my children attended one of the large west Cary high schools and it was, for both of them, a wonderful experience. As you say, their school was "plenty" diverse but the primary form of diversity was cultural/ethnic. From a socioeconomic perspective, the school was much more homogeneous.
As a transplant, I have noticed this about the Triangle in my short-ish time here.
Up in MA, it was the opposite (at least on the South Shore where we lived)
MA towns are much more homogeneous around race than they are around socioeconomics.
Texas has no state income taxes. They make up for it in property tax.
I really don't buy that argument.
Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Washington, and Wyoming are all also without income tax. The only state in that list that also has higher than average property taxes is NH. What does NH also have? New England-style smaller, town-based school districts.
What's the highest prop-tax area right here in the Triangle? ? Chapel Hill/Carrboro. The only local small town/based school district.
The common denominator in higher-property taxed areas is smaller in size/higher in number school districts per-capita...not a lack of income tax.
To be clear; I'm not saying that smaller sized school districts are bad....just that they are an often over-looked factor in increasing property tax burdens on localities that are set up that way.
It wouldn't take NC abolishing income-tax to raise the property tax rates in Wake County. What would do it is "Cary/Apex Central School District". Morrisville Central Schools" "Raleigh City Schools" , "Wake Forest/Rolesville ISD" , "Garner/Knightdale Area School District", "Fuquay-Varina/South Wake Unionfree Schools"
I honestly don't think they care at all about data - this is pure politics.
According to a lot of people, ALL Wake County schools are good. So assuming that is true, it's not the school or the teachers that's causing these kids to under-perform. And if that's the case, mixing in higher-performing kids won't change a thing. The success of a child comes from the home.
Can we deal with facts in this discussion? Do have some numbers to back this up and show that there are no underperforming schools in the district?
Both of my children attended one of the large west Cary high schools and it was, for both of them, a wonderful experience. As you say, their school was "plenty" diverse but the primary form of diversity was cultural/ethnic. From a socioeconomic perspective, the school was much more homogeneous.
When they say diversity they are talking socio-economic diversity. GHHS is about 7% free and reduced lunch- this is often used as measurment to detemine socio-economic diversity at a school. Some schools are as high as 80%.
Can we deal with facts in this discussion? Do have some numbers to back this up and show that there are no underperforming schools in the district?
Of course there are underperforming schools if you look at test scores only. But does that mean the teachers at those schools are underperforming? I have no idea, but I'd guess no.
When they say diversity they are talking socio-economic diversity. GHHS is about 7% free and reduced lunch- this is often used as measurment to detemine socio-economic diversity at a school. Some schools are as high as 80%.
Of course there are underperforming schools if you look at test scores only. But does that mean the teachers at those schools are underperforming? I have no idea, but I'd guess no.
So if Wake Co School's goal is to make the income levels fairly equal in their public schools, what advantage does that serve?
I hear so many times that people moved to west Cary for the schools. Is that because better teachers are in west Cary or simply because more students who are performing well in the class live there? OTOH, due to the socio-economics of west Cary, do the teachers in west Cary schools go to different lengths to accommodate the west Cary parents? I'm not sure, but I personally know local west Cary parents who complain to KG-1st grade teachers that their kids are not up to current reading levels, and the parents email them every day and seem to be working hard at their "requests." But isn't the main idea that teachers should not be different in west Cary vs southeast Raleigh?
Therefore, making the students' family's income equal to everyone else in the school is not really a great way of going about this.
Like others said, a way better way of handling this is to treat the low-performing schools first and see what they need. If you do a busing program like before, you will fail again and everyone will hate you for it. Do these current school board members understand that? And if not, does that need to be said at a school board meeting by one of us or is that useless?
Also, keep in mind that discussions like this really ramp up the support for private schools in the high-income west Cary and north Raleigh area. Especially for an "affordable" private school like Thales who is trying to build a campus in west Cary. That land near Yates Store Rd that is "free" is never going to be left alone either for a school or more housing - what's the latest on that?
No, I said I went to a school where bureaucrats imported a large amount of bad kids using the justification of "diversity", and the result was horrible for everyone.
Wow, he grabbed those words (diverse and bad kids), jumbled them all up and came up with the desired outcome he wanted from the beginning. Stinks of Facebook.
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