For all the talk about diversity at Wake County school board meetings, it is hard to ignore the lack of diversity among diversity supporters. The adjacent picture from Wednesday’s News & Observer report on the Wake County school board meeting, makes the point. Lots of clapping and chanting from demonstrators – all of which seem to be white. The News & Observer has a gallery of over 20 photos from Tuesday’s meeting. A quick review shows the absence of minorities. The same point could be made at any school board meeting over the last six months. It certainly makes you wonder. If minorities were opposed to the school board’s decision to drop socioeconomic status as a criteria for school assignment, wouldn’t it be noticeable at school board meetings?
The people who protest these meetings are magnet students and parents. These people benefit from accelerated classes and better teachers that the Magnet school program creates and attracts. If they did not go to the Magnet school, they would attend their neighborhood schools that do not offer as many classes at the same quality and rigor.
But if you go to one of these magnet schools and take a look at the students inside these accelerated classes taught by the better teachers, you will quickly see that that the racial makeup is not in any way diverse.
So who really benefits from the ‘diversity’ policy in Wake County? Overwhelmingly it is the white kids who are bused into Magnet schools in downtown Raleigh from Cary and North Raleigh.