The Wake Schools Plot
It’s all a vast right-wing conspiracy. And it’s about to wreck the
The plotters started by opposing a school-construction bond issue in 1999. They beat it. Then they targeted the school board elections, but lost. So they targeted election of the county commissioners, who control the school money. They won there.
The commissioners then forced the school board to make unpopular decisions in an effort to handle overcrowding.
The right-wingers created a climate that forced the schools to seek a smaller bond issue than was needed last year. Fortunately, it passed – despite the conspirators. But it was coupled with an unpopular school-assignment plan that included mandatory year-round schools.
So the school-wreckers pushed parents to sue. They got one of those “activist” judges, the kind the right-wingers used to hate for forcing schools to desegregate. Judge Manning may or may not be part of the conspiracy, but he surely sees himself as something of a Schools Czar in
Manning issued a ruling that wrecked the school board’s plan. The schools now are forced to offer unpopular choices to parents – choices that only increase public hostility.
One thing gets lost in all this: education. And it’s happening in one of the best and most successful schools systems in the nation.
But it should come as no surprise.
For more than 50 years, since the Supreme Court ruled in Brown vs. Board of Education, right-wingers in
They’ve tried whipping up the busing issue. They’ve tried school vouchers. They’ve tried starving the school budgets in the legislature. Every one of their candidates for Governor in 2008 will talk about “cutting waste” in government. That’s code for slashing school spending.
And they’ll blame the public schools for not raising SAT scores for a population that is heavily weighed down by poor kids from broken families.
It reminds me of an old story Bert Bennett tells about Terry Sanford. At an overly long political dinner one night, Bert wrote Terry a note on a napkin asking why he put up with it all. Sanford wrote on the napkin: “To keep the SOBs out.”
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The Wake Schools Plot
It’s all a vast right-wing conspiracy. And it’s about to wreck the
The plotters started by opposing a school-construction bond issue in 1999. They beat it. Then they targeted the school board elections, but lost. So they targeted election of the county commissioners, who control the school money. They won there.
The commissioners then forced the school board to make unpopular decisions in an effort to handle overcrowding.
The right-wingers created a climate that forced the schools to seek a smaller bond issue than was needed last year. Fortunately, it passed – despite the conspirators. But it was coupled with an unpopular school-assignment plan that included mandatory year-round schools.
So the school-wreckers pushed parents to sue. They got one of those “activist” judges, the kind the right-wingers used to hate for forcing schools to desegregate. Judge Manning may or may not be part of the conspiracy, but he surely sees himself as something of a Schools Czar in
Manning issued a ruling that wrecked the school board’s plan. The schools now are forced to offer unpopular choices to parents – choices that only increase public hostility.
One thing gets lost in all this: education. And it’s happening in one of the best and most successful schools systems in the nation.
But it should come as no surprise.
For more than 50 years, since the Supreme Court ruled in Brown vs. Board of Education, right-wingers in
They’ve tried whipping up the busing issue. They’ve tried school vouchers. They’ve tried starving the school budgets in the legislature. Every one of their candidates for Governor in 2008 will talk about “cutting waste” in government. That’s code for slashing school spending.
And they’ll blame the public schools for not raising SAT scores for a population that is heavily weighed down by poor kids from broken families.
It reminds me of an old story Bert Bennett tells about Terry Sanford. At an overly long political dinner one night, Bert wrote Terry a note on a napkin asking why he put up with it all. Sanford wrote on the napkin: “To keep the SOBs out.”
Click Here to discuss and comment on this and other articles in our Forum.