listbuilder-email-10-26-2005-CMS%20Returns%20to%20racial%20student%20assignment%20policy.htm

Two weeks before Bond vote - CMS (by a 5 to 4 vote) returns to a racial student assignment policy

Newly appointed Democrat from District 6 (Downing is swing vote in favor)

Under the guise of "geography" inner-city Black students at CMS are to be denied a seat at inner-city magnets solely because of the color of their skin.

Inner-city seats are to be effectively reserved for white suburbanites based on geographic location to encourage busing.

Over the past several years, CMS' Democrats have moved magnets into the inner-city to try and entice white suburban voters with special programs. This has been a failure as white suburban parents have opted for suburban neighborhood schools. Black parents have opted for their neighborhood schools or their own nearby inner-city magnet if their school had been converted by CMS. The problem is that the magnets have become predominantly 'Black' so CMS' Democrat majority wanted to fix this.

The solution to the Democrats: Return to Busing.

Lame Duck School Board member Louise Woods (d) introduced a proposal last night to require a set-aside of seats for students in predominantly white areas . The item passed last night 5-4.

The Democrat appointed (not elected) to the predominantly GOP District 6 seat 2 months ago was the swing vote in favor of return to racial busing and the Democrat agenda. She voted in favor turning her back on her own constituents.

Question: If CMS denies Black children seats in the inner-city isn't it just a matter of time until they deny white children in suburbia the same thing?

Question: If CMS only denies Black children in the inner-city seats under this policy doesn't it, by default, make CMS' policy racist and/or racial (and illegal) in practice because the burden of this policy falls on Black children?

Vote shows the need for the election of Republicans in general and a Republican in District 6 specifically. All those voting in favor are Democrats (Kit Cramer is an "independent" that votes with the Democrats most of the time and is running the current bond campaign for the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce).

Why would Ms. Downing (d) vote with her Democrat colleagues to support busing and reserve seats in a busing scheme when the overwhelming majority of District 6 voters (D or R) oppose this? These are legitimate questions that should be asked by District 6 voters and they determine whom to support in November.

Ms. Downing's support for this busing scheme is troubling because she claimed she was a different kind of Democrat. Her vote indicates she is really the same ol' kind using kids as pawns in a failed liberal social experiment. Ken Gjertzen the Republican nominee for District 6 should inform voters that if elected he will vote to reverse Ms. Downing's vote.

Democrat George Dunlap (who voted against the proposal said "that....By setting aside magnet seats for students from more affluent areas, CMS is further limiting options for those [inner-city and mostly Black] families." [added]

Right, but to the liberal apparatchiks at CMS, the goal isn't education, it is diversity at any cost.

See Observer Article below.

"Vilma Leake (d), Kit Cramer (i), Molly Griffin (d) and Liz Downing (d) joined Woods (d) in supporting the motion...."

The Charlotte Observer - Posted on Wed, Oct. 26, 2005

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/news/local/12997847.htm

MECKLENBURG COUNTY

School board drops choice experiment

With students now assigned, magnet program is revised

ANN DOSS HELMS

Staff Writer

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools laid its 3-year-old "choice plan" to rest Tuesday -- with a last-minute twist in how students will be admitted to magnets in 2006-07.

Tuesday's decisions capped 10 months of public discussion. The school board scrapped the complicated lottery that drew about 30,000 applications a year and had families making long-shot bids for seats in crowded neighborhood schools.

The board also approved new boundaries for Shamrock Gardens Elementary, which is adding a magnet program, and for new schools opening in the Highland Creek, Westmoreland and Winget park areas in 2006.

Starting in January, most students will automatically be assigned to their neighborhood schools for 2006-07. The choice plan offered families the chance to request assignment to any school in the county; in 2006-07 most neighborhood schools will be open only to students living in their zones.

Students can still apply for seats in underfilled neighborhood schools and magnets -- specialized academic programs where everyone attends by choice.

Magnet applicants will face a controversial and complicated allotment system that got no public airing before Tuesday. Magnet seats will now be allocated by geography in an attempt to revive racial and economic diversity.

The board approved member Louise Woods' proposal on a 5-4 vote, with everyone acknowledging the impact is far from clear. Opponents said the change sabotages simplicity and penalizes the black and low-income students who dominate the pool of magnet applicants.

"I'm not convinced this has one iota of impact on diversity, and I'm convinced that it's not fair," said Chairman Joe White, who joined George Dunlap, Larry Gauvreau and Kaye McGarry in opposing Woods' motion.

About 19,000 of the district's 123,800 students attend magnets.

Most magnets were created in the 1990s to help CMS meet court-ordered desegregation goals. Racial quotas ensured a balance of black and white students.

Those quotas led to the court challenge that overturned the desegregation plan; CMS replaced it with a choice-based, race-neutral plan in 2002.

Under that plan, white families have tended to stick with their neighborhood schools, while blacks have been more likely to apply for magnets.

Woods urged colleagues to restore racial and economic balance. Her revision allots magnet seats based on elementary school zones that feed to each magnet. Race and family income are not factors, but are often linked to where students live.

For instance, Woods said, the change might entice students from the Davidson Elementary zone to apply for Piedmont Middle, a popular magnet that has seen white enrollment shrink, because a certain number of seats would be set aside for students from that zone.

Vilma Leake, Kit Cramer, Molly Griffin and Liz Downing joined Woods in supporting the motion, though many voiced qualms.

Dunlap argued that magnets have provided an alternative to high-poverty, struggling neighborhood schools created by the choice plan. By setting aside magnet seats for students from more affluent areas, CMS is further limiting options for those families, he said.

Assistant Superintendent Susan Agruso said after the meeting she doesn't think the allotment will bring major changes in magnet admissions next year -- unless large numbers of new families suddenly take an interest in magnets.

Check Details

Boundaries and policies approved at Tuesday's meeting are available at www.cms.k12.nc.us; click on board meeting highlights under "news."

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