NAACP: N.C. Schools Are Bringing Back Segregation

A minister and a school board chairman are warring over whether North Carolina's largest school district is returning to the age of segregation.

Each man firmly believes he is right. Each man says he has the students' best interest at heart. But the solution that each man proposes could not be more different.

The fight -- which gained fury on Friday as the North Carolina NAACP announced it would file a federal civil rights complaint against the Wake County school system - illuminates divisions of race and class that run through school districts around the country.

The Wake County school system, the largest in the state with close to 140,000 students, is changing the way it assigns students to schools. Students at Wake County had previously been assigned to schools using a diversity policy that included busing kids from different, sometimes far-away, neighborhoods.

But a new plan - that has already been put into effect at a few schools - stresses "neighborhood schools" over diversity, aiming to keep kids in schools that are close to home. Proponents of that plan argue that nearby schools are more walkable and family-friendly, allowing parents and community members to get to know local children.

The North Carolina NAACP says that the Wake school system has violated Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which states that groups that engage in discrimination can't receive federal funds.

The new method of assigning students, says the NAACP, will segregate schools. The group adds that some of the new school assignments have already discriminated based on race.

"'Neighborhood schools' is code for segregated schools," the Rev. William Barber, head of N.C.'s NAACP, told a reporter at The News & Observer recently. Determining a child's school based on geography means that students of color will be held back from opportunities, he says. A well-known critic of the school system, he's been arrested twice during school board meetings and charged with disrupting business and refusing to leave school grounds.

Ron Margiotta, board chairman of the district, calls the controversy a "distraction" that lacks merit in a country that has elected its first black president. He finds it ridiculous that his grandson wasn't assigned to the school closest to his home, and points out the school district has low test scores and graduation rates for low-income and minority children, even with the diversity policy. "We're not going to let this distraction take away from our focus on academic achievement," he said.

Can a school district operate schools that are both diverse and close to students' homes? When communities are divided by lines of race and class, how much responsibility do schools have to bring students together? Is the phrase "neighborhood schools" code for segregation, as Rev. Barber says, or should students' neighborhood playmates be their classmates as well?

The only clear answer is that trivializing the importance of race in American education only makes things worse.

The dilemma of redistricting is not unique to Wake County. Schools across the country, from Williamsburg, Va. to  Philadelphia, Pa. have grappled with these questions.

Do you have an idea for a compromise? Is Wake County practicing discrimination? Can "neighborhood schools" contain diversity? Is this still an issue? Share your ideas in the comments.

Photo credit: woodley wonderworks