Educational Politics vs Political Education Part I

Whew, in our fine city we certainly "have it going on!" The "IT" is either educational politics or political education. How interesting to be able to sit back and watch this comedy and tragedy unfold! Unfortunately, the receivers of the result of this fiasco are/or will be the children in our county. So often as an educator I listened to "we are all about the children", "we are here for the children." The events of these days makes one ask, "What about the children now?"
In the fall elections certain areas of Wake County elected school board members with an agenda to dismantle practices they personally opposed without concern for the remainder of the districts in the county. The majority of these newly elected members have no knowledge of the history of this school system.
To briefly summarize how this school system comes to be organized as it is one must go back to the mid seventies. Two forces were at work at that time as it pertained to school districts. One factor (at that time) was that school districts In North Carolina were strongly urged to merge where there was a county unit and city unit within that county. That worked for Wake County and Raleigh City because the city system had become victim of what is often called white flight. The triangle area was growing and as it did Cary was blooming. Other areas around Raleigh were growing but Cary's proximity to RTP made it attractive to the transplants coming from all over the country but mainly from the north -- IBM having settled in RTP. Along with that population, many people started to move out of the older sections of Raleigh (city) into the suburbs to live. Areas outside Raleigh were a part of the Wake County School System. The result was that Raleigh City Schools became minority heavy while the county had a majority
of the caucasian population. Merger (in 1976 and opposed by many) was needed to solve the situation. As Raleigh and Wake County have continued to grow the school system has become quite large -- perhaps 14th in the nation.
Because of its size management is difficult. Perhaps because I am an educator who has worked in a position that required me to always look at the big picture and how all pieces fit into the puzzle I can analyze this situation from afar --- and guess what??? Lots of other people think they can do the same. More later.