Magnet/calendar applicants by the numbers

Out of the 34 kids reassigned to Stough from Lacy we know that 28 of them will not be attending Stough. They have all applied to magnet schools and will be considering a lawsuit based on this reassignment, if they dont get into magnets and/or the lawsuit doesn't work then they are prepared to move, home school, attend private school, or attend a charter school.

It seems you stough parents should be upset at the BoE for what they did to you 3 years ago and again what they just did to you this year. They have hurt Stough far worse now by highlighting the monumental problems that stough has to everyone in wake county. And since 95+% of the Lacy kids will not be attending Stough - what has been gained except a heightend awareness of Stough's horrific conditions.

I would advise you Stough parents to get out quickly why your children may still have a chance to succeed instead of suffering through a poor elementary education, it would seem the more affluent and intelligent parents in your base nodes have already done that. Why haven't you all? I feel sorry for your children!

user1234--They aren't the right schools because they have high F&R.

Exploiting Wake County Children
Today, March 05, 2009, 2 hours ago |(Venita Peyton)

As I think back on the Concerned Citizens for African American Children's meeting one week ago at Martin Street Baptist Church, I recall the only student who spoke. She may have inadvertently let the cat out of the bag.

This very composed, obviously intelligent young teenager lives in Wake Forest. She happily arises at 5 am to prepare to attend Enloe High School in East Raleigh, 5 days a week. Through the school she recently was able to attend a program in China. The real China. The country.

This young lady stated that Wake County should have resources in every school. A very good point. However, I couldn't miss the logic that Wake County is willing to pay someone to drive children from Wake Forest to this Raleigh neighborhood. Not a short ride.

This young lady is black. Remember: the goals of busing was to use socio-economic status as the purpose behind teaching children away from their neighborhoods. The guise was that we would diversify schools by busing black children to primarily white neighborhoods so that they could learn together. And, to bus in white children to diversify black schools.

There are many conflicting decisions being made by Wake County school administrators. Much of it is not about diversity. It's about the authenticity of the initial goals, the proven success in magnet programs, and who can attend.

It's also about how certain children's learning environment, ability to graduate, attend the best colleges, and thereafter operate in society, can be managed. At the expense of other children.

I am thrilled for this child's scholastic achievement. Every child can learn and deserves the very best public school education that can be had. However, to me, attendance at magnet schools may explain why more black parents are not attending and speaking up in school board and reassignment meetings.

It increasingly sounds like some parents may fear that their child will lose their place at a magnet school. AND, that child may be bussed with those 'other' children.

You know, those children labelled as troubled, low income, and undeserving to attend a school with a 'better' environment.

Here is another reason for revamping the Wake County School Board. There are too many political decisions being made behind closed doors. We are allowing the system to pit one child’s future against another child’s future. One child's family against another child's family.

And that's wrong.

What parent wouldn’t want their child to receive the very best education? A community will rally around a child who might need to raise money to attend a summer experience in a foreign country. Especially, if their parents can’t afford the expense. But some black families CAN afford the expense, because their child's education is worth the sacrifice. Which also means that the socio-economic status jargon may be just a smoke screen for divvying up the goods among certain families. At the expense of others.

This young lady may or may not realize that the bigger conversation now is about forced busing. She may have been given a pass.

The goal of a fair, equitable public school education should be to give a ‘pass’ to every, single child. Regardless of who they are. Or who they know.

Now that over 13,000 applications for magnet schools have been received, we have to wonder how staff will determine who the beneficiaries will be. At a minimum, we know the decision will not be based on equity or fairness.

It will be based on 'who' you know.

I would just like to clarify that Stough parents never asked for Lacy students to attend their school. They asked for some relief--for the backfill that they were supposed to have gotten when Brier Creek opened and siphoned off Stough students. It happened to be Lacy nodes that got reassigned and when Lacy parents protested, then yes, Stough parents fought to keep them because Stough needs the students.

Also, the percentage difference is not small--Stough's F&R is twice that of Lacy's and the schools are about 2 miles apart. I know that Lacy parents have argued that the BOE should be worrying about the difference between schools like Fox Road and Wildwood Forest instead. I agree that Fox & WWF are an issue, but not one that is easily remedied--it has been tried and failed already. I understand that nobody wants to leave their school. The fact that Lacy parents were successful in fighting this move when it was first proposed a few years ago has only exacerbated the situation now. Those children are still assigned to a 'neighborhood school', which is much better than what some families get.

I wonder how many of those Baucom kids came from TCE a few years ago.

At least she says what the others think and act upon but never say. You have to give her credit for that. Academic excellence is only for a few in Wake and everyone else just a pawn in the BOE's games.

She is an absolute buffoon.