Has the new Wake County student assignment plan discouraged businesses from coming to the area?

As noted in today's article by Thomas Goldsmith, Raleigh Mayor Nancy McFarlane caused a stir when she raised the issue during the joint meeting of the Wake County Mayors Association and the school board. McFarlane said she is starting to hear that some businesses have second thoughts about coming here.

Harvey Schmitt, president of the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce and a backer of the new choice plan, said he was not aware of any company that has chosen not to relocate to Raleigh because of the school system. Schmitt said that McFarlane was, understandably, reacting to anxiety expressed by constituents in pockets of town where schools are in high demand and overcrowded.

The issues of stability and base assignment came up during Friday's presentation of Wake County's new student assignment plan to the Raleigh Regional Association of Realtors.

As noted in today's article, school administrators touted how the new plan will allow real estate agents to assure families that they will no longer have to worry about student reassignment. But the real-estate agents were concerned about how the loss of base assignments would impact their ability to sell homes.

“This is a hard reset and mental adjustment to make,” said Susan Pullium, a member of Wake’s student assignment task force. “There’s no longer base assignments.”

How do you explain Wake County's new choice-based student assignment plan to realtors?

That will be Wake Superintendent Tony Tata's job on Friday when he gives a presentation to the Raleigh Regional Association of REALTORS. According to a press release, Tata "will discuss the new choice based school assignment plan and ways that REALTORS can be best informed and assist their clients."

"We look forward to hearing from Mr. Tata and exploring ways the REALTOR® Community can partner with Wake County Schools," said RRAR president Linda Trevor in the press release.

Real estate agents were frustrated by the old node-based plan.  But whether they'll find the new one any easier to explain to customers remains to be seen. The meeting is only open to RRAR members.

Sometimes a non-endorsement can be more telling than an actual endorsement

The Raleigh Regional Association of Realtors announced last week their endorsements for this fall's municipal elections. But the press release said that "after much consideration, the Board [of directors of the Realtors] decided not to endorse candidates for the Wake County School Board."