Where do I start?

Over the past week, a number of people have emailed me a link to a Letter to the Editor written by Brad Davis that is posted on The News of Orange County's website.

Since I first read Mr. Davis' letter, I have wanted to both correct his factual errors and to comment on the points he made. But, thanks to The News' waiver of its length rules in this case, there was so much to address that I didn't know where to start.

I will take a stab at responding, but this will take more than one post. Text from Mr. Davis' letter will be italicized with my comments in regular text.

First, let's start with the most obvious factual error from the letter. In his first paragraph, Mr. Davis states:

"The percentage of children receiving Free-and-Reduced-Lunch (FRL) at Central is almost 75 percent, ..."

Even though we may disagree on the proposed changes to our elementary schools, I wish we could simply agree to argue from a position of accuracy.

The percentage of children at the two schools on FRL seems to be a moving target, and at the rate it is growing, over 100% will be on RFL by the end of this school year.

On March 20, the Durham Herald-Sun reported that "Roughly 70 percent of students at Central Elementary participate in the free and reduced lunch program."

On the same date, the Raleigh News & Observer reported the same statistic. "At Central Elementary, that number [FRL] is more than twice the average at about 70 percent."

Orange County School Board Member Liz Brown inflated the number even more when she emailed an HES parent, "I believe all schools should reflect the district average of 33 percent free&reduced [lunch], instead of the 70 or 79 percent currently at CE."

Now Mr. Davis is putting forth a number of his own - "almost 75 percent."

I don't know how Mr. Davis defines the word "almost," how the Herald-Sun defines "roughly," or how the News & Observer defines "about," but I don't think 14 percentage points (or even 9) falls in that category.

In fact, 61.3% of CES students are on the Free & Reduced Lunch program. This data was clearly presented to the Orange County School Board at the February meeting when the concept of a school merger was first proposed by Superintendent Carraway's staff.

For those who continue to inflate this number as justification for a merger, I have one question. Do you really need to disseminate false information to support your cause?