Black leaders oppose proposal to split school district – Rocky Mount Telegram

The Political Agitator response: In response to a comment by someone hiding behind a code name.

You will agree with Rep. Collins just to disagree with Councilman Knight and Rep. Willingham so that is nothing new.

I didn’t read where Rep. Collins said what happened 25-30 years ago is not relevant for today? What I read was Rep. Collins said, “However, N.C. Rep. Jeff Collins, R-Nash, said that the comparison between events now and in the past are not as simple as Willingham states.

“We are not going back to the same three school system formula as we were before,” Collins told the Telegram. “So I am not sure how you can compare what is going on now with what happened then.”

So what part of the following picture do you and Rep. Collins don’t get because it is clear to me, “Willingham said Nash County “is again reneging on its settlement of this lawsuit and pushing actions to render Edgecombe County and Rocky Mount a racial and economic wasteland.”

“Whether it’s their overt intention or not, they are using the justification of disparities in capital funding and county wealth as a basis to re-segregate the system and re-draw the lines to exclude the predominantly black and lower wealth families of Edgecombe-Rocky Mount along the railroad boundary that they know brings a history of friction that signifies both racial and economic differences,” Willingham said.”

Yep that is the problem if it were more white students I wonder would Robbie Davis be pushing this discussion?

You say have a black Superintendent. Hell some didn’t want him then and some don’t want him now and that is a major issue as well that is being left out of the equation but just last month it was a force trying to fire him.

The whole thing is RACIAL and that is okay for me. What ain’t okay is when folks want to deny it’s racial overtones.

The Nash County Commissioners under the leadership of Robbie Davis is pushing the issue as financial. Well Rep. Collins made some sense when he said, “Collins said that he does see the need for the current system to change.”

“I am in favor of each county paying for the cost of educating the students from their own county,” he said.

“I think that is only fair. I just am not sure if splitting the system along the county line will be necessary to do this,” Collins said. “I think we need to find a way for Edgecombe County to start paying their share of the cost of educating their students. I am just not sure what it is going to take to make this happen.”

But the problem with that is Nash County Commissioners said, “Nash County commissioners have said their main reasons for asking for the county line split of the school system are the inequities in current funding formula and a desire to see Rocky Mount removed from the funding formula because of the strain this causes on utilities costs.”

In other words Nash Commissioners are trying to remove Rocky Mount City Council out of the equation trying to say there are inequities in current funding formula and to use the utilities because that is something that has been a hot issue over the years. Well damn so they don’t want the Rocky Mount City Council to pay anything and the main thing is using the citizens of Rocky Mount against each other.

If Nash County Commissioners are on to something and can prove there are funding inequities then deal with that but why do there need to be a school split? Just makes no damn sense to me but that is just my ignant opinion.

Black leaders oppose proposal to split school district

N.C. Rep. Shelly Willingham, D-Edgecombe, and Andre Knight, president of the Rocky Mount branch of the NAACP, both recently spoke out against using county lines to split schools in Rocky Mount.

Knight said the Rocky Mount branch of the NAACP plans to hold a special meeting on Thursday to discuss the request of the Nash County commissioners to divide the Nash-Rocky Public Schools district along county lines. The meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m at the OIC Auditorium in Rocky Mount. (Source: Read more)