Uncertainty about what's next in the student assignment process

So, where do we start? With the basics. As President Obama has emphasized, the single most important factor determining whether students succeed in school is not the color of their skin or their ZIP code or even their parents' income -- it is the quality of their teacher.  

 Even the best teachers -- those who possess such skills -- face stiff challenges in meeting the diverse needs of their students. A single elementary- or middle-school classroom can contain, for instance, students who read on two or three different grade levels, and that range grows even wider as students move into high school. Is it reasonable to expect a teacher to address all the needs of 25 or 30 students when some are reading on a fourth-grade level and others are ready for Tolstoy? We must equip educators with the best technology available to make instruction more effective and efficient. By better using technology to collect data on student learning and shape individualized instruction, we can help transform our classrooms and lessen the burden on teachers' time.  

 We also must make charter schools a truly viable option. If all of our neighborhood schools were great, we wouldn't be facing this crisis. But our children need great schools now -- whether district-run public schools or public charter schools serving all students -- and we shouldn't limit the numbers of one form at the expense of the other. Excellence must be our only criteria for evaluating our schools. 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/07/AR2010100705078.html 

Ms. Goldman could be a bit flaky at times but it looks like she's the only board member who kept her common sense.  What were Tedesco and Co. thinking? 

That they could go from a situation where a small percentage of students could be bused all over Wake County to a scenario where students weren't force-bused but had no assigned base school and no certainty of an assigned school?  Which is worse... depends on how one plays the odds.  I'd suggest forced-busing was better because the chances were low your kid would be involuntarily bused but if he was you'd have little choice but to go private.

I think Tedesco, et. al. finally became muddled and tried to satisfy everyone but ultimately annoyed many including his own base.  He was thinking he could come up with this sophisticated, complicated plan by a Ph.D. consultant and somehow that it would work.  Come on, let's be real, forget it, no way that was going to work from an implementation standpoint.

They should have stuck to their guns, did away with forced busing, and grandfathered students and siblings at neighborhood schools and realized that with growth there would be changes in assignments, i.e., moving the lines.  They would have overlap between grandfathered and new assignments but they would plan to have some bus routes that overlap.  That could most likely be easily paid for by the savings from forced-busing.

They just lost their way.  Tedesco with his good intentions and attempting to satisfy all the agitators, was way out of his depth.  He didn't need to be but he didn't level with himself.  His reach exceeded his grasp. 

Let's hope Ms. Goldman can get the common-sense majority re-tethered to planet earth.  I think Ron has probably backed off and chosen not to run since John became more dominant in things.  Unfortunately John jumped the shark when he lost his head at the meeting.  His credibility is diminished.  I hope Ron steps back up, corrals John, works with Debra and gets some fuel back into their engine.

So does this mean that all of the silly lawsuits and DOJ investigations will now cease.  Does it mean that Rev. Barber will go home now?