Arne Duncan Chides Wake County School Board For Reversing Diversity Policies

RALEIGH, N.C. — The nation's top education official on Friday joined a chorus of criticism targeting a decision last year by North Carolina's largest school district to end its busing for diversity program.

"America's strength has always been a function of its diversity, so it is troubling to see North Carolina's Wake County school board take steps to reverse a long-standing policy to promote racial diversity in its schools," U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan wrote in a letter to The Washington Post that was also provided to The Associated Press.

The federal education agency's Office for Civil Rights is investigating the board's decision, following a complaint filed with the department last year by the state chapter of the NAACP and other groups.

They allege that ending a policy in which some of the district's 140,000 or so students were bused to achieve socio-economic balance in the school district amounts to a rollback of civil rights-era changes that integrated the schools.

Duncan's three-paragraph letter didn't necessarily endorse that position, but it did urge other school boards to think twice before using Wake County's new policy as a model.

"I respectfully urge school boards across America to fully consider the consequences before taking such action," Duncan wrote. "This is no time to go backward."

John Tedesco, one of the Wake County board members who voted to end the policy in favor of allowing students to attend schools as close as possible to their homes, said he was disappointed by Duncan's letter.

Tedesco said he supports many of Duncan's ideas about improving public schools, and that he would have liked to speak with the federal education chief before Duncan went public with his criticism.

"If he actually saw the details of what's going on in Wake County, or had the opportunity to speak to some of the leaders in Wake County, I think he might have had a different tone, and maybe even been more receptive to the message," Tedesco said.

Last year's vote to end the decade-old busing for diversity policy began a round of protests, investigations, and bickering among board members that shows little sign of slowing. Most recently, the board became embroiled in a dispute with AdvancED, a national accreditation agency that's investigating changes in the school system, including how the board reached its decision to scrap the diversity policy. Board members say the agency is overstepping its bounds.

Duncan's letter is the latest sign that Wake's once-stellar reputation for schools has become tarnished, according to Yevonne Brannon, chairwoman of the Great Schools in Wake Coalition, a citizens' group that has opposed many of the changes sought by the board.

"It's kind of a sad moment," she said. "A school system that used to get press for having the national superintendent of the year and being a stronghold for best practices is now getting written up for dismantling policies that maintained diversity in our school system."

Comments

[Moveonorgfan]

07:15 PM on 01/19/2011

Arne Duncan should resign. He advocates busing to promote racial diversity. In 2007, the US Supreme court "Seattle School Board vs Parents Involved" ruled that busing based upon race was unconstitutional.
The previous Wake County policy was to bus children in order to balance socio-economic diversity. In the United States only 70 school districts currently bus children for socio-economic diversity. 13,720 school districts in the US do not bus children to diversify their student body's socio-economic background. (Does YOUR school district bus children based upon socio-economic background?)
Arne Duncan is clearly wrong for recommending unconstitutional race based busing. He should resign for his clear lack of competence. But are 99.99% of the school districts in the US wrong for not following a busing policy based on socio-economic diversity?

[Ghoulish]

04:30 PM on 01/16/2011

I believe that desegregation in school was the right thing to do, and perhaps it still is. I know that racism still exists in America. However, those same people who have been bussed to "better white" schools are still living in the same pocketed, poverty-stricken areas. So what, exactly, has been the benefit of busing if those communities have still not improved and changed with this supposed superior education opportunity?

[plthomas]

09:53 AM on 01/16/2011

So let's call Sec Duncan's attention to his own discourse, endorsements, and policies that contradict his own claim:

"I respectfully urge school boards across America to fully consider the consequences before taking such action," Duncan wrote. "This is no time to go backward."

Notably, the call for increasing corporate charter schools: http://dailycensored.com/2011/01/12/21st-century-segregation-inverting-kings-dream/

[stape45]

08:38 PM on 01/15/2011

Taking America back - to the Middle Ages.

[Michael Klonsky]

07:49 PM on 01/15/2011

Good statement Arne. But didn't you do the same thing in Chicago by pushing federal judge to drop deseg Consent Decree? You claimed deseg was "too costly."

[mikey09]

06:37 PM on 01/15/2011

Come on Arnie, where do your kids go to school in the upper income gated communities of Arlington, how diverse are they, when a condo costs abt 600k?
 
Why do our leaders preach one thing and practice another?

[SethWJohnson]

08:21 PM on 02/21/2011

Irrelevant comment. Read about the logical fallacy you just committed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tu_quoque

[carolina919]

03:41 PM on 01/15/2011

From what I can tell, the diversity policy's real goal was to move poorer performing students (largely from poor neighborhoods) around in just enough numbers so that teachers wouldn't lose their bonuses and the Chamber of Commerce could truthfully state that all schools were making "adequate yearly progress". I LOVE the fact that one of the most modern and best magnet programs for the county was situated in southeast Raleigh but I remain unconvinced that moving students around is what is best for students. No where can the previous school board or school administration show longitudinal data that backs up their claims that this strategy increased the success rates or graduation rates for poorer students. Now THAT would have been a real convincing piece of information. In this day in age, with the preservation of magnet schools and other options for "choice" in a public system why can't we expect success for every neighborhood school? IF there are problems or clustering of poorer performing students doesn't that call for more targeted resources...rather than diluting the problems and ignoring the students. That's what really bothers me. Where's the data showing that all of the upheaval and multi school assignments in a student's career actually WORKS. Works pretty good for teachers and the Chamber of Commerce....now show us the data for students. They haven't anted up yet and what they have offered is anecdotal.

[KaAp]

02:05 PM on 01/15/2011

As much as I think the re-segregation of Wake County public schools are reprehensible ... Duncan chiding anyone after what transpired in Chicago is beyond ludicrous ...

[Cougar90210]

06:26 PM on 01/15/2011

You got a point there.

[martinibride]

01:19 PM on 01/15/2011

I have children in school in Raleigh and we have had a wonderful experience. The busing for socio-economic diversity is/was so that all children would be given the same opportunity to attend the newest facilities. There is a wonderful magnet system in place so that if you don't like your "neighborhood" school, you can apply and go elsewhere. Tedesco and Margiotta, the two most responsible for leading this charge are transplants from NJ who want to change it to their way. They are thugs, you need to see them at a board meeting to understand fully. Also, Margiotta is on the board of a private school whose creator was the number one monetary backer of the last school board election and is an ardent Republican.

[Bcre8ve]

02:57 PM on 01/15/2011

I also live in Raleigh and had a very good experience in the Wake County school system. My children went to charter schools and magnets in the district and had to spend a lot of time on the bus, but we chose to do that and it was worth it.

The big problem seemed to start with parents being upset that their children were changed to different schools fairly frequently, which was a result of growth, not bussing policy, and the attempt to go to year-round schools to help alleviate the problem.

But, as you said, these were parents coming from up north that had towns that only had one school and everyone lived nearby (much like myself). Unfortunately, they have decided that they want to change the system they moved into rather than adapting to the way things are. We are all suffering for it.

[leddev]

07:10 PM on 01/27/2011

I live in Wake County and I know of parents who are furious because their children are enrolled in different schools (for example, two elementary school siblings), on different schedules (one year round, the other traditional), and often bussed for over two hours a day. This is absurd. Many try to get other assignments and are told NO by the school board because they do not fall in the socio-economically "needy" category. This is ridiculous. How dare these folks think this about racist parents or a racist population. I am a progressive and Huffpost fan, but this county has been a social experiment at the kids expense for too long. Bus the darn teachers, not the kids. Keep siblings in the same schools on the same schedules so families can take vacations together. Then we can talk about diversity. Quite frankly, the school board deserved to be overturned for ignoring real problems for so many years.

[dmessy]

12:24 PM on 01/15/2011

Given the way the world works today, a key "soft" skill for children is to understand how to live in a multi-cultural world. That includes diversity, etc. I feel that is positive. However, the negative downside is that diversity becomes an excuse to limit the expectations of students, to "dumb" down the tests, and to assume everyone has to be even. If anything these schools should encourage "gifted" programs, etc... to provide a way out for those children, regardless of SES, to get the achievement they can. In other words -- diversity should be used to improve the opportunities for our children, not to excuse them (or force them) to enter some race to the bottom.

[Defender of Truth]

12:00 PM on 01/15/2011

I recently moved from Pennsylvania to Virginia. What I see happening in Virginia does not surprise me that the South in general, are quite insular and loath to change from their 1800 mind set of discrimination against blacks, Jew, Catholics, and all peoples who do not fit their outmoded views of what a society should be.

[martinibride]

01:11 PM on 01/15/2011

I live in Raleigh and it is actually the newcomers to the area that are responsible for this!!

[Bcre8ve]

03:01 PM on 01/15/2011

The first question people ask you in Raleigh is, "Where did you come from?". The joke here is that the name of one of the county's towns, Cary, stands for "Containment Area for Relocated Yankees".

This is not an entrenched southerner problem, this is the doing of "carpetbaggers" that have moved in from other areas.

[KIVPossum]

12:06 AM on 01/16/2011

Thank you.

[mollyrodriguez]

12:52 PM on 01/15/2011

What a very politically correct statement.

[Bcre8ve]

03:05 PM on 01/15/2011

Raleigh's inner city magnet schools are some of the best, not only in the state, but nationally as well.

The point of Wake's program wasn't to remove poorer students from the inner city, but to more evenly distribute all types of students to all of the schools, and to develop inner city schools into programs that parents fought to have their children accepted.

This is the very successful, nationally recognized, program they are ending.

[am10]

06:16 PM on 01/15/2011

So you're saying they were trying to make every school a magnet, because that's expensive.

[supportamerica]

10:42 AM on 01/15/2011

When my children were young we lived in a large school district. When they were ready to enter Junior High we found out they would be bused across town. That is when we moved out of Dallas, to a small town with a better graduation rate and less problems. Their high school was in a district that had to play an all black school. As the parents, band and football team members arrived at the school we were directed to a fenced in area, with security guards, to park our vehicles, the entire bleacher section was fenced off from the field, and we were seated in an area that was considered a high security area for our protection. We were a predominately all white school. Did I mention this was in 1992? There were police, with guns, patrolling the stadium. We were stunned to say the least. The following year the districts were redrawn and our school no longer had to travel to this school for football games. With this experience, diversity? you can keep it. Not worth putting my children or grandchildren in danger.

[jcwtts1]

01:34 PM on 01/15/2011

Let me ask you a question. Don't the kids who go the poor black school have a right to a good safe decent education? Or is that reserved for the white kids like yours? Only people with the money to move when schools get bad should have good ed, poor people are stuck with their neighborhoods? That sounds like a good plan for you? How about this, we switch the funding stream from property tax, which benefits the suburbs, to sales tax, which benefits the cities. Suddenly the urban schools would have three times the money of the suburban. Would you enjoy your family living in an area where the school got less funding than the city schools, had worse facilities, no fields, no science labs, no money for music or art or after school programs? What would you do if that happened to your kids and you didn't have the money to just move to the burbs? We aren't just dealing with your kids we ware dealing with communities. I understand why you want to protect your kids and couldn't give a hoot about other peoples but we don't all have that luxury.

J

ps - did anything happen at the game? Did you get jumped or robed or hurt or bothered in anyway? Just checking because you didn't mention any incidents, just that you were protected while on someone else's campus.

pps - the reason you dropped the other team had nothing to do with how safe your

[Cougar90210]

06:33 PM on 01/15/2011

Take note that they moved out of Dallas . . . that would be in Texas. Now, do you get where this person is coming from? F&F

[supportamerica]

08:06 AM on 01/16/2011

JCwtts!: The school my Grandchildren now attend receive a little over $3,000 per student from the Federal Government. The people in the community take up the slack. The community just upgraded all of the computers for the school, grades k-12, not the state or the Federal Government. The parents and Grandparents are heavily involved with their children's education. The school has a 97.8% graduation rate. The school I mentioned was getting three times that amount, and still are, and the statics have not changed in the last 19 years. The pregnancy rate is very high, the academic rate is very low, yet more money keeps being thrown at it to "fix" the problems.This is a school district with a very large University and many wealthy people that live there, so you would think their education would be very high. Most of the blacks I have run across in my life time don't care about a good education. They are in school because of our truancy laws and don't want to have to go to an alternative school. Not everyone is at the same level and to try and "level the playing field" is ludicrous and it is never going to happen. When it comes right down to it, those parents who actually care about their children's education will put them first and those don't, won't.

[John Cesano]

01:45 PM on 01/15/2011

It seems that some of the children at the all black school you visited would have benefited from having the opportunity to attend the school your children attended.

I am truly sorry for your children and grandchildren that you oppose diversity and equal opportunity so stridently. I am grateful you are so open, and unashamed, of sharing your relief at being saved the necessity of visiting the all black school.

Rather than work to make things better, or offer constructive suggestions for improving education for those born into socio economic difficulty, you almost seem to be proud to share what seems like a self congratulatory note about white flight and ignoring the plight of others.

I know that the written word is flat, stark, and carries with it no sense of sarcasm, facetious or ironical coloring. Perhaps, I am missing some warm sharing you intended. I am certainly missing the positive point I hope you intended.

Perhaps you could clarify what you meant. I honestly don't get it.

[Cougar90210]

06:30 PM on 01/15/2011

I don't get it, either, John. F&F

[learnmeproject]

10:07 AM on 01/15/2011

Just because something is "political correctness" (all originating good intentions aside, it's clearly run amok) doesn't mean it's not right. It isn't necessarily right but it often is. I do think that programs like this tend to be short term solutions, compromises that compromise the integrity of all parties, but the intention is right, the need for true equality. Too many privileged kids--and their families--complaining that it's easier to get into Harvard (or wherever) if you come from difficult family and/or socioeconomic backgrounds. In other words, being given a relatively excellent education--safe school environment, extracurricular opportunities, personal support, etc.--in the end makes in less likely that you'll get into the college of your dreams. Is this a joke? Maybe your family should give away all there money and move to an underprivileged neighborhood, you'll be good to go then.... http://learnmeproject.com/

[SeptimusDSX]

09:49 AM on 01/15/2011

I can definitely see the advantages of having diversity in schools as an investment. Why did they stop it? Financial reasons? This report is a bit thin on the details.

[am10]

11:03 AM on 01/15/2011

Bussing usually never works. The kids that endured it in Boston in the 70s (all of them) don't want that for their own children. As one mother said, "I want my kids to walk down the street to school."

[SeptimusDSX]

11:17 AM on 01/15/2011

Why did they feel so? Was it transportation problems?

[Moveonorgfan]

07:33 PM on 01/19/2011

The US Supreme Court ruled in 2007 (Seattle vs Parents Involved) that busing based upon race was unconstitutional. Arne Duncan should resign for his utter lack of knowledge.