Education

I have read some coverage of the School Board race including last night's forum. The Herald had candidates arguing over who is accountable for the acheivement gap, while the DTH had them debating srategies for addressing it. Either way it's pretty much the same story.

We all want to close the gap, but School Board debates seem to be conducted in some code I don't understand to avoid touching the lightning rod of racism - which is really at the heart of the problem. So you tell me, readers: Who are the progressives in this race and why?

When a recent attempt to make a technical correction in the Chapel Hill Carrboro School System's gifted program resulted in an hour of angry testimony from gifted parents, the school board simply gave up.

Board member Ed Sechrest said he would vote "against his conscience" to forestall the legions of e-mails he receives if he votes against what the parents of gifted students want.

"I don't want to read 20,000 e-mails from parents, saying you cheated us, you lied to us," he said. "So I am voting against my conscience."
- Chapel Hill Herald, 9/7/05

Congratulations to these parents who have proven that they are better organized and have more time and energy to spend on this issue than anyone else in town.

On Tuesday August 16th the Orange County Commissioners will make a decision about how to address the funding disparity between our two school systems. The current plan is to put a district tax on the ballot this fall, and let county school district voters decide for themselves.

According to the Chapel Hill News, the entire Orange County School Board opposes this referendum. And County Commissioner Moses Carey says "Obviously, what the school board thinks is important, but we won't base our decision solely on what they think."

Should the commissioners assume that the county school board is the voice of the people and abandon the referendum, or should they take the attitude that this is an activist school board that may not reflect the will of the people, and go forth with the referendum?

According to school board member Randy Copeland, the proposal will "put a tax on those who can least afford it." Fiscal conservatives want to leave things as is.