Fight for funding

A series of protests in Raleigh this week painted a picture of the changing landscape of the state’s K-12 education, a landscape that many parents, teachers and students object to.

With more state budget cuts expected to take more teachers out of classrooms and increase class sizes, and with the Wake County diversity policy repealed, many are concerned that North Carolina’s children could experience an era where the support they need to achieve just isn’t there.

At a rally Saturday in downtown Raleigh against budget cuts and a protest Tuesday at a Wake County Board of Education meeting where a decades-old, nationally lauded diversity policy was repealed, parents, teachers and students expressed ideas of what they expect from local and state government in support of the state’s students.

The end of busing

The Wake County school board’s decision to end busing for diversity in favor of neighborhood schools was regarded by many in attendance as a big step backward in race relations.

Supporters of the new policy argue that low-performing minority and low-income students would do better in neighborhood-based schools. A proximity based assignment plan would eliminate busing, making schools more diverse compared to one another.

More than 40 parents, teachers and Wake County alumni signed up to make public comments.

Many speakers pointed to national research showing that neighborhood schools lead to socioeconomically segregated schools, creating areas of poor, low-performing schools and areas of well-funded, high-performing schools.

The newly proposed policy passed in a 5-4 vote without any amendments.

Board member Carolyn Morrison said that if the board approved the new policy, they would be effectively “gutting the heart and soul of desegregation.”

About 15 people, mostly students, began chanting after the vote was announced.

“Shut it down, no segregation in our town,” the students chanted.

David Eisenstadt, an Enloe High School student and a leader of the Student Army of Wake County, led a group of students rallying outside and inside the meeting.

“I want other students to have the same opportunities I have had to learn and grow because of the policy that was in place prior to tonight,” Eisenstadt said.

NAACP State and Political Action Chairwoman Erin Byrd agreed.

“As a mother, I am disturbed with the example this board is setting for our children,” Byrd said.

“We need to stop preaching division and separation, and start teaching our children that unity and community are important.”

Budget cuts continue

The North Carolina Association of Educators, the state’s largest association for education professions, organized the “Fund Schools First” rally and march Saturday in response to recent state budget cuts and the expectation of further cuts during the N.C. General Assembly’s short session which began last week.

“Because of the budget cuts, there are less educators per student … there is no individual attention given to the children,” said Cindy Craven, an educator who was laid off in the budget cuts.

Overcrowding in classrooms, a lack of 21st century technology and a lack of structural support from the state were some of the results of state budget cuts discussed by the speakers.

In the 2009-10 fiscal year, $225 million in discretionary cuts were made from K-12 education, slashing more than 3,000 teacher positions, 219 support staff and 1,552 teaching assistants.

Gov. Bev Perdue’s recommended budget for the revised 2010-11 fiscal year would cut another $314 million from K-12 schools.

Deborah Rudolph, mother of three and teaching assistant at North Hills Elementary in Winston Salem, said her children need an education that will benefit them and help them get decent jobs.

Rudolph said with the distractions and lack of financial resources in her own classroom, she doubts her girls are getting a quality education.

“To some of my students, I’m a mom, dad, counselor, caretaker and a teacher,” Rudolph said.

Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.