Wake County board votes to emphasize neighborhood schools

FromThe Raleigh News & Observer: The Wake County (N.C.) school board has voted to end its diversity-based attendance-area policy, and the district will begin a politically bruising slog to divide the county into community school zones. The number of zones is undetermined. The cost of the new system is uncertain. And as the board's majority fleshes out a plan to assign the district's 140,000 students to schools as close as possible to their homes, it must fend off charges of resegregation by opponents who vow to keep fighting them. EARLIER...from The Raleigh News & Observer: A North Carolina judge has dismissed a lawsuit that sought to block the Wake County school district's plan to end its busing for diversity program. The school board is expected later this week to give final approval to removing all references to socioeconomic diversity in determining school attendance areas and making students' proximity to school a priority.