NAACP calls Sunday forum on threat to Wake schools; WakeUP sets coalition
State NAACP President William Barber, together with the presidents of the three Raleigh-Wake NAACP chapters, terms it an urgent meeting (flyer is copied to the right) after another tumultuous session of the Wake school board on Tuesday. “What is the Nature of the Threat of Re-Segregation” raised by the new school board majority? That’s what the NAACP is asking now that the board, by a 5-4 vote, has resolved to put year-round school attendance back on a volunteer basis only — no year-round assignments. And if the demand for year-round slots outstrips the supply, as it will in many parts of the county, the majority has determined to stop giving any preference in the application process to kids from low-income areas (”nodes”).
This “blind” policy on year-round schools is considered by many to be the board majority’s first step toward gutting the school system’s longstanding diversity policy, which is designed to prevent having any “rich” schools or “poor” schools. For reasons not fully understood, low-income parents don’t volunteer their kids for year-round schools as much as affluent parents do. A voluntary process, therefore, with a random lottery system if there are too many volunteers for a specific school, is likely to result in some rather upscale year-round schools, leaving in their wake (as it were) some traditional-calendar schools with much higher numbers of low-income kids.
It almost certainly will do that, in fact, unless the school board weighed in strongly with a countervailing diversity effort — but that’s just what the new majority is against with its “neighborhood schools” philosophy.
The NAACP meeting is at 5 pm Sunday at the Martin Street Baptist Church, 1001 East Martin St., Raleigh — a short distance from Moore Square.
Meanwhile, WakeUP Wake County has formally announced the launch of the “Great Schools in Wake Coalition.” Individuals and groups are invited to join.
The press release is copied below the fold.
