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If nothing else, I'd love to give McKinney a high-five for bringing up the disastrous busing for sake of diversity. It not only deteriorates the integrity of the schools that are affected by it, but now it's an even more burdensome expense.

Cut that nonsense out and maybe we'll have some more fantastic schools in Guilford County.

We've argued a lot about the issue of busing on this blog and others, but I can't argue now about the cost of running school buses. Schools must curtail all unnecessary transportation costs and apply a stricter definition of what's necessary.

Ripvandoug.

I am glad that you finally woke up:-)

"Schools must curtail all unnecessary transportation costs and apply a stricter definition of what's necessary. "

Does/would this have any impact on magnet programs? If transportation for magnet programs was not provided by GCS, would there still be magnet programs?

Michael is absolutely right. We bus students hours each day just so board members and administrators (among others) can have warm fuzzy feeling that schools are appropriately diverse. Take for example, Eastern High School. Students who live two blocks from Page High School are bused all the way to Eastern (if you haven't been to Eastern, it is a haul) for no reason other than they are largely poor and black. These same kids could be walking to school at Page.

Busing also creates other problems. These kids live in one place, but go to school in another place. In my way of thinking, schools are the the hub of a community and a very important part of everyday life. By sending kids to school outside their neighborhoods we create a sense of disconnect. The school is not "their school" but rather the school that has been selected for them. Many of the kids, I am told, who are bused to Eastern can't stay after school for sports or other extra-curricular activities because no one can drive all the way out to Eastern to pick them up afterwards.

Then there is the problem of parent involvment in schools. I think it is fair to say that all things being equal, parents are more likely to be involved in their child's school when it is two blocks a way than they would if it is a half hour drive away (especially if they don't have a car). We need to do all we can to reduce barriers to parental involvement in schools.

High energy costs is yet another good reason to end busing for socio-economic reasons.

Paul Daniels is correct about the Eastern matter, which has been going on for years. In addition, when the BOE canned the High Point Chance Plan, it redistricted many neighborhoods to achieve the "diversity" in Southwest that they hoped to achieve with the HPCP. They mandated the busing of black students from the southside of High Point across town to Southwest. These students would normally attend Andrews, but they could see Andrews as the bus passed the school on the way to Southwest. All of this at a time when Andrews had many empty seats.

It is interesting that now that the price of gas is out-of-sight that the principle of busing for diversity is out of favor. It's now not such a great idea.

jwg, yes, the essence of magnet programs was to replace forced busing to achieve integration, and it would be affected. Magnet programs were designed to encourage voluntary integration of the schools. However, there is a lot of forced busing of students to achieve integration and "diversity" that goes on in this county under the guise of redistricting that is not necessary. Much of it runs under the public radar.

As far Ms. Alexander, if she isn't aware that students are being bused solely for diversity, then she is totally unqualified for a seat on the BOE. What has she been doing for the past 5-10 years, as she is totally out of touch. If she fancies herself as a serious board candidate, how could she not know?

Charlotte-Meck superintendent Peter Gorman yesterday recommended closing 13 magnet program as a cost-savings measure, Transportation costs apparently figure into the recommendation.

http://www.charlotte.com/408/story/679989.html

Diversity is not for the sake of a "warm fuzzy feeling" and those who mock it are refusing to come out and say what they really mean. Saying one wants to preserve the "integrity" of a school is really saying, "I don't want my kids to go to a school with kids who are different."

Candidates who dismiss diversity as a legitimate goal must be ignorant of the struggle to overcome "separate but equal" and will not get my vote in order to turn the clock back.

As for energy savings, heating and cooling are tremendous wastes in too many GC schools. Every fall and spring, you can find classroom windows open to compensate for heat running on hot days and air conditioning running on cool days.

So we run into a classic clash of liberal objectives: busing for diversity vs. using less fuel.

This is real scary! Where has Ms Alexander been these past several years???

Schools do combine middle school and high school now when close.

"I wasn't aware we bus for diversity?" .......Alexander

P L E A S E E E E E

I'm a liberal but I am for using less fuel but against busing.

I believe in the right for kids to be able to walk to school!

Before any magnets are closed administrators should first see how many families would still consider driving themselves.
Also, there is no doubt in my mind that money could be cut from other places to fund the gas increases. Let's start with the needless spending on Eugene Street; "consultants", the Stat man who was hired solely to make Grier look good, racial "healing" seminars, etc. Now that Grier is gone most of his trained monkeys can be let go.

As to Alexander's quote about not being aware of any busing for diversity, that is pathetic. What's her agenda for running for the board of education if she's not aware of current and past happenings? Her brilliant idea of buses traveling 43 instead of 45 will only make the bus rides even longer. The students of Guilford county are on buses long enough as it is. Alexander better get a clue. The middle school and high school students are already traveling together. What a joke of a candidate she is.

Looks like she is a real politician.

Doug, as always you are a complex man. Here you are lauding a cross country program above at a school that is ninety-five percent white when the 2004 Doug Clark would posit this school is a travesty that should not exist and should have been dismantled for "socio-economic balance". Most of these runners should be doled-out to other schools, so they're on a bus, big deal.

Where'd the old Doug go?

What?

You're saying I would have said what about NW in 2004? What did I say about NW in 2004? Nothing. That wasn't part of the discussion.

Besides, the strength of the cross country program at NW has nothing to do with its racial make-up. It has to do with coaching. You don't win cross country meets simply by putting a lot of white boys and girls on the starting line. Many, if not most, of the world's best distance runners aren't white. Watch the Olympics this summer.

Roch, you are quite right that there was never any forced-busing in GC for "warm fuzzy feelings" Although it was always cloaked as some type of "progressive thinking", it was always political chicanery done by sitting members of the schoolboard trying to manipulate the demographic of their own respective neighborhood/ patron schools, always done at the expense of schools that had no patron rep on the schoolboard. That's why it was bitterly opposed and why it's been a fiasco.

So Doug, you're saying tradition and stability have nothing to do with building sucessful sports and academic programs?

Tradition and stability are important, but a good coach could build a strong cross country team pretty quickly. You just need five to seven runners with some talent and willingness to work hard to produce a winning team. The right coach could do it at any high school.

Granted good coaches always help. Don't you think good coaches would gravitate toward schools and student bodies that aren't playing musical buses every other year

Cross country coaches are teachers first, coaches second. Schools generally don't hire cross country coaches like they do football or basketball coaches. Teachers have lots of reasons for choosing which jobs to take. Stability seems likely to be one reason.

I personally think if there was a lot less emphasis on sports in middle and high schools, and less money spent on them and on promoting them, we'd have shot to promote the real purpose of school: education. Reading. Writing. Science. Math. Critical thinking skills (Yes, I know some of this is learned through play, but one can still play competitive athletics, as intramurals).

Imagine the savings in gas if all those parents didn't have to truck all those kids to all those games all over the place. Or the school system didn't have to run a bus or charter them. Ditto for band competitions. Just play at home, at the school you attend. Play concerts. Play games. And spend a lot more time learning the content of the courses. European and especially Asian students don't have anything approaching the levels of sports-and-related distractions we do.
And now their performances on all the major categories of academic and scientific knowledge has zoomed past us.

Granted, there are those who are mainly in school to get through without hurting others, to be socialized and to find a mate. At least the first one or two. In Gloucester, Mass, to start a family!

Oh, hey, and let's ban students driving to and from and during lunch breaks and study halls, etc.