N.C. Lawmaker Rails Against CMS Redistricting Plan, Calls It ‘Social Engineering’

CHARLOTTE, NC -- Days before members of Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board are scheduled to meet to vote on a controversial redistricting plan, a North Carolina lawmaker who is also a CMS parent has come out with a blistering attack of the plan he calls “social engineering.”

Rep. Scott Stone, a Republican representative from Mecklenburg County, urged the board in a statement Monday to delay the vote until a new school superintendent is in place. “Superintendent All Clark appears to be engaged in legacy building with a particular focus on social engineering within our schools,” Stone said. "She is pushing a controversial political agenda that has been met with considerable resistance from parents."

On May 9, hundreds of parents of students in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools packed the Government Center to tell school board members exactly what they thought of a sweeping proposal to change boundaries at more than half of the district’s schools.

The $6 million proposal would affect 7,100 students at 45 CMS schools and includes redrawing school boundaries, reopening shuttered facilities and realigning feeder school patterns.

The May 9 public hearing was the first of its kind since the reassignment proposal that would bring changes to 75 of the 138 schools in CMS’ district emerged April 25.

The school board is expected to unveil any new changes to the proposal at a May 16 work session, with a final vote planned May 24.

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About 90 parents took the podium with comments for board members ranging from praise over the diversity plan and promises of leaving the school district if it passed.

“CMS needs to provide specific information about how this idea will be executed. A real plan before the vote,” one woman said.

One of the most controversial parts of the plan -- to pair elementary schools to increase diversity -- drew fierce criticism from some parents Tuesday night. “This feels like a numbers game, and our children are more than numbers,” said Cotswold parent Lecil Sullivan, a Cotswold Elementary parent, the Charlotte Observer reported.

One researcher says the idea of pairing schools to increase diversity could actually backfire and prompt some families to move. David Armor, who is a retired public policy professor, criticized the plan in an email to the school board last week, The Charlotte Observer reported Monday. “During the desegregation era, I did extensive and detailed studies of white and middle class flight resulting from mandatory desegregation plans that used pairing to promote racial balance,” Armor said. “I believe that these two CMS pairings are likely to have similar impacts on white and middle class parents.”

The full CMS proposal on the changes that would take effect at the start of the 2018 school year can be found here.

According to CMS, the new strategy will improve socioeconomic diversity in 21 of the 75 schools that will be affected by the change, and will improve proximity for students at 14 schools. The plan will also increase the number of magnet school seats by 62 percent, bringing the total district number to 4,270 seats for the 2018-2019 school year.

YOUR TURN: What do you think about the proposed boundary changes? Tell us what you think in the comment section.

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