When you're right ...

I am perfectly comfortable admitting when I don't know something or when I am wrong about something, so I also feel comfortable tooting my own horn when I am right. That is the case this morning.

As the Orange County Board of Education's reconstituted Merger Sub-Committee sits down this morning to discuss how best to address the mess the Board has made for itself, they have something new to discuss.

It was confirmed to me last night that my concerns, about only designating one school to which CES children could transfer in the event CES enters School Improvement status, were correct. The Orange County Board of Education MUST offer parents more than one transfer option.

Apparently, the Board has been informed by Allison Schafer, the Legal Counsel/Director of Policy at the NC School Boards Association, that I was right. Parents must be given a choice of schools when transferring out of what the NCLB law unfortunately calls a "failing school."

Rather than a hardship that must be addressed in continuing down the same road, the Board of Education should embrace this as an opportunity to incorporate real school choice into the "Big Plan" for Orange County Schools.

Why should parents' choices, at any of our schools, be so limited? Why should where you live in the county be the primary determinant of your children's education? Especially, when the Board can arbitrarily move an imaginary line and completely change that experience with no direct input from you?

In the discussion of what to do about CES, some have suggested creating a new magnet school program at CES. I ask, why can't all our elementary schools have magnetic elements? Maybe a stronger than normal art program at New Hope, an exceptional music program at Pathways, a math focus at Grady Brown, and develop other core competencies at other schools.

Keep the zoned areas for parents who want to keep their children closer to home, but open the door for parents to choose the school that best fits their child's innate strengths and talents. Now that would be a model for choice we could all be proud of.