News-Record.com

This will probably not impact federal magnet programs -- all of the schools funded under MSAP are either under court orders to desegregate (which are not implicated in today's ruling) or use "race neutral" means to assign and recruit students.

This ruling is a step back, but there may be a small ray of hope. See the NAACP Legal Defense Fund's excellent blog -- it provides a lot of insight. http://scintegration.blogspot.com/

This ruling now simply means that school districts now have to focus their resources upon creating quality education in low-performing schools, rather than rely upon diversity to solve the problems, which it doesn't. No more student shuffle.

This ruling helps school districts, not hinders, as it will now put the burden on school administrators to use its resources properly to actually educate.

Wally World,

Its a sad day for social justice! A good day for segregationists! White people have a long history of disenfranchising people of color. Thanks to GW's supreme court picks, segreagationists win and people of color are once again shafted. I bet next you will attack equity funding so you can buy more Lacrosse sticks!

The Real Truth

Two words:

Clarence Thomas

RT, I think you need to forget about the people of NHP and Jamestown for a minute and focus your attention on that cast of characters over at Reedy Fork. Now there's an army of contrarian thinkers (2,700 +) to the School Board to be proud of.

By the way I got an e-mail last night from someone who explained to me who GW is. Why didn't you just say "W" in the other strand, I would have known who were talking about. GW makes me think of George Washington and I was lost about why you were upset about him and Martha.

Anyway since you brought up Supreme Court justices, would you like to know what picture I am looking at in my office? It's a picture of our daughter's freshman class from 2 years ago of them sitting on the steps of the Capitol Building with Congressman Coble. It's right before they went into the Senate Chamber to watch the acceptance vote of John Roberts.

Why was there a disagreement about the new
Reedy Fork Elementary school? It was obvious that
the supporting community members of that area were in strong support of that name and

NO Deena....

the community is NOT Guilford County schools .....

The community is the children , parents, and grandparents that will support this school.

Do you really think parents from the High Point
area , Southern Area, Southeast Area, and downtown
area give a flying rip what the school is named...

NO!!!

The board should have never wasted the amount of time discussing this that they did. The project team presented the name and the signitures supporting the name. The school board had NO RIGHT or reason to overrule it.

Why is it that the community is expected to follow school board policies to the letter and our elected board members do not even know what the policies are?? If I did not know or read the policy and was a board member, I definitely would not be advertising it!!!!

SHAME....

Real Truth,

The subject matter is public schools. Their charge is to provide education, not assure social justice, got it?

It is now time that public schools get back to providing quality in education for ALL students. It is time to focus its resources on its original mission...instruction and education. A look at the pitiful job being done by our public schools of educating all students must come to an end. If you want social justice, then demand better education. Education is the pathway to social justice.

I have asked RT many times about Grimsley. Blah, blah, blah for others but RT refuses to answer, for it is the "real truth". Black children graduate at a higher percentage at Andrews and Dudley than at Grimsley.

There it is: Its the facts that blow this diversity crap out of the water. If Guilford County were full of schools like Grimsley would we be talikng about Black educational results?

I doubt it.

Dear Disgusted Tax Payer,

What I do not get about Deena is she was opposed to the McNair name the last meeting as she thought it was a racial ploy. NOW she votes for the name and was against the Reedy Fork name. Notice the vote for McNair was the 3 blacks and Dot. Possibly they got some racist toned emails per some of the lecturing comments Duncan made. I guess Deena and friends wanted to "punish" the Reedy Fork people by voting for the McNair name.

and you are correct NO Deena Guilford County is not their community

Guilford County is too vast with too many different interest groups, types of communities, rural, urban and suburbia to all be ONE community. Heck we all know Dot is supposed to be at-large but represents Central. She was even heard saying NHP is not considered part of High Point to her.

I remember when Deena came to a meeting a few years back in the SW community and mentioned she had been afraid. Why???? I have no idea. She definitely did not feel at the time that SW was HER community. She often refers to the black community, the black children of Guilford County and being their advocate.

I haven't heard her referring to representing "all" the children of Guilford County as all being one community. Others see children as children, all children. This doesn't seem so when she speaks.

Why the 180 on McNair vs Reedy Fork?

And why was SO MUCH TIME spent on a name. There are much more important issues in this county, like gangs, drugs in school and school violence.

The above ruling proves all along, as we had told the school board, the High Point Choice Plan was always illegal: illegal to bus because of race and now the recent ruling proves what we had been saying about the illegal, fixed lottery (1st choice to Central and Andrews, but not SWH). Let's not forget the Department of Agriculture stating that FRL can only be used for meal purposes. Statements were also made in the newspapers at various times and at school board meetings (it's on tape)that "socioeconomic" was just another way to say "race". So we disagree with the school's attorney that the schools were not doing anything "contrary to that opinion" (US 4th Circuit). At least this was not a true statement in the case of the High Point Choice Plan which is probably the real reason for it's inevitable demise. We won't even get into the waste of money, the waste of time spent on "fixing" High Point to satisfy a few Central alumni when there are many other pressing issues in the county, the political downfall of quite a few board members and the negative PR that GCS was left to undo.

What about:

Originally assigning choice plan based on FRL

Orginally wanting to go back to kindergarden records of FRL to establish the illegal lottery

Years of telling the public that satellite zones were illegal then suddenly after all those years one night at a school board meeting Jill Wilson states that they are not exactly illegal
(guess it depends on what the current agenda is of the current school board at that time)

The blatantly infamous Map C swap plan that followed the illegal Choice Plan.

The list is endless.

But in the end the laws of truth and justice will prevail for the people.

Patriots,

Enough. Can't you just move on past all the previous injustices invoked upon your community?

Enough already.

Quit re-hashing past events.

Time to move on.

To Time to Move on,

Patriots mentioned the infamous Map C redistricting, and you say it is a past event and time to move on. The impact of that decison is stil being dealt-with at Southwest. It's not past history, and hard to impossible to just move on, when you are still mired in the fall-out of a disastrous decision. If we forget the events of history, we may be doomed to relive them at a future date. Most of the perpetrators of Map C and the HPCP are still on the school board. It won't be over until they move on. As Yogi said, it ain't over 'til it's over, and it ain't over.

I dont know about anyone else but if I see Black Tuesday, High Point Choice plan etc, etc, written one more time on the blog I will throw up.

Wont some people just move on.

Great point about history, Wally. So true about the fall out. We are still paying the price; not so for the rest of the county. It ain't over until we see what the 2008 elections will bring. It is a work in progress.

I was making point that things are not always so "legal" or on the up and up as the paid-by-the-hour attorney states. That's one reason the schools have an attorney. You can always believe what you year.

So to 7:20 post BLACK TUESDAY, BLACK TUESDAY, BLACK TUESDAY, HIGH POINT CHOICE PLAN, HIGH POINT CHOICE PLAN, HIGH POINT CHOICE PLAN. Go take some tums. You'll feel better. We've been doing that for years.

You can't always believe what you hear. (typo correction)

Did you just hear the sound of someone throwing-up in the background??

Black Tuesday?

Does someone want me tell the story of the Georgia peanut farmers again?

Patriots / Buckmtn,

You guys are more Grand Dragons than Patriots. you justification for segregating schools is hollow rhetoric. W's legacy, the worst President in the history of this country. He's made the world less safe, started a war (lets see WMD, they didn't exist oh now I'll say it was for freedom and democracy, oh that didn't work now we are fighting terrorism) made the US hated around the globe and on the domestic front spent our children's futre with one away govt spending. He inherited a surplus and will go out with the largest deficit in history. He has widened the gap between the middle class / poor and wealthy and now he's made segregation legal. This 4th of July I will celebrate only because he only has a short time left and we will take back our country from the lying cheating scoundrels in Washingto who have lined their bank accounts at the expense of innocent Americans and people all over the world.

Buckmtn,

Howard Coble is an idiot. He wants a flat tax and other crazy ideas. He doesn't understand tax law or tax consequence. I wouldn't be proud of having my children around him.

The Real Truth

RT,

It sounds to me like Communist China might be a better suited country for you than the U.S. I'm sure we could easily raise enough money for a one way ticket for you.

I agree, time to move on.

There was a discussion on this topic on the Diane Rehm show this morning:

http://www.wamu.org/programs/dr/07/07/02.php#13254

Supreme Court Decision on Race-Conscious Public School Policies
Longtime civil rights activists deplore the Supreme Court's ruling against school admission policies based on race, but other commentators say it's time to acknowledge that the time for Brown v. Board of Education has passed. The future of integration and equal protection in the public schools.

Guests
Juan Williams, NPR correspondent and author

Theodore Shaw, president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund

Deanna Tinsley, 60-year resident of Louisville, Ky. She worked in the Louisville Schools for 38 years.

Deborah Stallworth, Jefferson County Schools parent

Kathleen Brose, president of Parents Involved in Community Schools

Correction:

The Project Team voted 2 yes and 1 no for Ronald McNair Elementary School. I was there and I know. The Reedy Fork community did not support the Project Team. I was a one meeting where I was the only member there. I was at another meeting where I was one of two there. I have never been to a Project Team meeting when there was more that three people from the Reedy Fork community there. I am sorry to say, but we have never had a new school opening with such little interest in participating on the Project Team.

Joe,

I applaud you for your tireless commitment to education in Guilford County. It is especially honorable given that, I don't believe, you have any children in the public school system today. Were you a member of the project team for the new Reedy Fork elementary school? Have you served on other project teams? What is the criteria for being selected as a member of a project team?

Thanks.

I can tell you that I was asked by a board member to serve on Northern Middle/Northern High as a parent/community member. I know that 5 parents and community members were asked and all are serving- and most attend every meeting, or at least 80% of the meetings. Joe was coming to many of those meetings but I don't know if he was considered a project team member or an interested community member. I don't even know if there is a difference between those two. The people that I know on other teams have children that will be going to the school.

If you are interested in serving I would suggest emailing your board member if there is a project going on in your area.

Yes. I was a member of the Project Team. I became a member by going to meetings. As far as I know, noone had a letter from anyone officially desiginated them at members. When, it came time to make a recommendation on the name, only those that had been to several previous meetings were called Project Team members. Those that came for that one meeting supporting a name were not considered Project Team members. I am also on the Northern Guilford High School Project Team. On this one, I requested to be on it. I don't recall but I don't think I received a letter but was notified of when the meetings would be held. I personally believe that the Project Teams should not be involved with the name. The name needs to be given to the school months before the Project Team gets going. It needs to be done during the design stage. The Reedy Fork Elementary is the only large project I know of that had minimal community participation on the Project Team. Gary Swing participated in Reedy Fork but he lives in McLeansville area. It seems that anyone can be on the Project Teams. On all the teams I have been on, all the members were very cordial and very sincere. Not one time did anyone say I should not be there. I wish we had more interest, so members would have to be chosen.

I never received an offical letter either. Just a verbal invitation.

I totally agree with the Supreme Court on this one.

DO NOT force segregation OR integration!

Let people live where they want to live, go back to neighborhood schools, and let the chips fall where they may. And stop screaming whenever schools in the ghetto don't do as well (like anyone should be surprised at that).

A child sitting next to a child of a different race in school doesn't mean better academic achievement. If that were the case, we would be importing students from China, India, and Japan and randomly placing them in American classrooms.

I totally agree with the Supreme Court on this one.

DO NOT force segregation OR integration!

Let people live where they want to live, go back to neighborhood schools, and let the chips fall where they may. And stop screaming whenever schools in the ghetto don't do as well (like anyone should be surprised at that).

A child sitting next to a child of a different race in school doesn't mean better academic achievement. If that were the case, we would be importing students from China, India, and Japan and randomly placing them in American classrooms.