N.C. School System Votes to Scrap Longstanding 'Diversity Policy'

A North Carolina school system voted to ditch a longstanding controversial policy of busing children to schools outside their neighborhood to achieve diversity.

Fox affiliate WRAL.com reports that the board that governs schools in Raleigh, N.C., the state's largest school district, voted 5 to 4 Tuesday night to stop assigning students to schools by socio-economic background. The change, which still needs final approval later this month, would take place over 15 months, the station reported.

Parents and students reportedly lined up to speak to the board as discussion began late Tuesday afternoon. Those opposed to the vote included the state's NAACP president, Rev. William Barber, who has threatened to sue the board if it scraps the policy, according to the station.

The Wake County plan, adopted in 2000, became a popular model until 2007, when the Supreme Court limited the use of race in how districts assign students.

Its current policy sends students to schools to achieve socioeconomic diversity, which also improved racial diversity by frequently sending lower income black children from the city's center to predominantly white schools in the suburbs.

School administrators who voted for the plan said that returning students to their neighborhoods isn't an attempt to resegregate but a matter of making life easier for families.

The new plan would create community zones, carved around a magnet. If final approval is given later this month, the plan will take three years to implement.

Click here to read more on this story from WRAL.com.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.