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Student assignment looms huge in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board campaign.
Members elected Nov. 3 will plunge quickly into questions about where kids go to school. Their decisions will shape not just individual education options but property values and community identity, themes highlighted in recent student-assignment protests that have mobilized hundreds.
Assignment decisions have defined Charlotte for almost four decades, from the court battle that made the city a national busing pioneer in 1970 to the recent return to neighborhood schools, which has brought rising poverty levels and declining white enrollment in many city schools.
Today's candidates agree on a need to clean up the messy process that has fueled anxiety across the county. But the broader philosophy that will guide the new board's decisions remains up in the air.
Tom Tate (District 4) and Richard McElrath (District 2) are running unopposed. Both have been forceful advocates for breaking up concentrations of school poverty. Both will represent districts with large numbers of struggling, high-poverty schools.
Tate, the only elected incumbent in the race, has urged colleagues to use assignment to boost school diversity.
"I want to educate every student in CMS, and presently student achievement correlates too closely with racial isolation and concentrations of wealth/poverty in schools to ignore," he says.
But he's found little board support, including from the three at-large members who aren't up for election this year.
All of the candidates in south suburban Districts 5 and 6 say it's time to stop juggling demographics and create stable boundaries that reflect neighborhoods and communities. They say there are better ways than boundaries to help children of poverty, such as giving them strong teachers and principals and strengthening parent involvement.
"Recent school success stories show that although racial/economic balance are factors, these items play less of a role than do the quality of teachers, principals, parents and resources," said Eric Davis, a District 5 candidate.
In Districts 1 and 3, spanning the north, the northeast and part of central Charlotte, candidates have sharp differences on student assignment.
Bottom line: Come December, the nine-member board will have up to five new members. That kind of change is unprecedented in recent memory, and it means there will be immediate jockeying to see who can get a majority on assignment and other issues.
To see how much one school board election matters, look to Wake County, nationally renowned for using student assignment to balance schools long after most cities stopped. This month, four neighborhood-schools proponents won suburban seats, joining a fifth school board member to form a majority opposed to the current diversity policy.
The new members take office in December, but civic leaders, educators and real estate agents are already abuzz about the likely effect on education, property values and Raleigh's national reputation.
Stop the flight
The new CMS board will be a fresh generation of leadership, the first that had no hand in the 1990s court battle over race-based assignment.
Larry Gauvreau, who is stepping aside, was one of the plaintiffs who sued to end racial quotas. Molly Griffin, who isn't running, and Vilma Leake and George Dunlap, who resigned to become county commissioners, were on the board that fought to maintain court-ordered desegregation.
For eight years, Gauvreau has been the most vocal spokesperson for neighborhood schools, making his case in a confrontational style.
In this campaign, the case is being made in more moderate tones. Frequent reassignments and long bus rides do far more harm than good, some say.
"Less time on a bus means more time for learning, for extracurricular activities, a job, and allows parents to be more involved," says John Ross, a District 6 candidate.
During recent boundary debates, many parents have focused on how many "successful schools" will be created or preserved. "Successful" generally means having enough white and non-poor students to attract more of those families, with the higher test scores, graduation rates and parent involvement that accompany such demographics.
John Chesser, who studies population patterns and public schools for UNC Charlotte's Urban Institute, says many such families have moved across county lines. When a 60 percent white county has public schools that are 33 percent white, the "tipping point" for public support may have already occurred, he says.
"What you need to look at is how do we keep the suburban and affluent population in Mecklenburg County engaged in the public schools," he says.
Diversity matters
No one disputes that neighborhood schools, in Mecklenburg and nationwide, create stark contrasts. Increasingly, CMS looks like other big cities, with a cluster of urban schools serving mostly low-income students of color surrounded by majority-white, affluent suburban schools.
The split comes on whether there's any point trying to change those patterns.
"Let's stop focusing on where the children go to school and start focusing on what the schools are providing for our children," says Teresa Tudor, a CMS parent and District 3 candidate. "We need to make sure every school in CMS is a great school."
Longtime educator Joyce Waddell, one of her opponents, disagrees. "There needs to be measures to promote diversity, and it can be done with moderate amounts of disruption," she says. "Pupil assignment must be constantly monitored and adjustments continuously made for diversity."
For all of the talk about making all schools excellent, no large district has done so.
Matthew Lassiter, a University of Michigan historian who has written about Charlotte's schools and suburban politics, says most cities tolerate a system where the affluent can buy their way into top schools.
"If we're going to have this kind of system in the United States, we should be honest and talk about it," he says. "At some level, you don't really believe in equal educational opportunity."
New approach?
CMS Superintendent Peter Gorman says he plans to put student assignment on the agenda for the new board's January retreat, along with a discussion of other ways to ensure that all students get an equal shot at a good education.
As current board members and candidates note, the assignment guidelines approved in 2005 are so broad they allow many interpretations.
They call for "stability and proximity to the extent possible," say diversity should be "fostered but not forced," and guarantee each student a seat in "a school close to home" - but not the closest , which often provokes bitter contention.
While candidates disagree about how and whether to streamline those priorities, they agree the process has gone astray. What was supposed to be a by-the-book June decision on high school boundaries turned into a cascade of proposals that won't conclude until Nov. 10, the current board's final meeting.
All candidates say anxiety about assignment is so strong that it's the dominant topic when they meet with voters. They say the new board must revise the process to restore order and confidence, though it's not clear how.
With hundreds packing meetings about proposed changes, Ross offered a tongue-in-cheek plan for enticing voters who traditionally skip school board elections.
"Just say we're going to talk about boundaries," he said. "That will get them all out."
