Wake Plan To Be Scrutinized

The first of a series of public information sessions on the proposed Wake Schools student assignment plan will be held tonight. The sessions are designed to update people on the status of a new plan.

The presentations will be held at high schools throughout the county. Members of the student assignment task force will offer some details of the plan and discuss what it may mean for where kids will go to school next year.

The sticking point on the plan continues to be the way in which the magnet school program is tied to school choice. Superintendent Tony Tata is supporting a version of the plan that will allow families in poorer areas of the county to choose so-called “achievement schools” in the suburbs. That would free up seats in southeast and downtown Raleigh for magnet students.

The members of the school board who ended the old diversity policy have expressed a lack of support for that idea.

A new student assignment policy is still several months away from a final vote.