Goldsboro Segregation Debate Moves Into Parents' Hands

The six schools within Goldsboro city limits are comprised nearly 100 percent by minority students. It is a problem WRAL first reported in March.

Administrators want to know if parents will move their children back to those schools if they become more racially balanced.

"We want to see what the public thinks," School Board spokesman Stan Alleyne said. "There's been a lot of talk, a lot of controversy. But we really want to hear from parents."

A one-page survey is going out to hundreds of parents who live in Goldsboro but send their kids to county schools.

The main question: Would parents consider sending their children to city schools if the classrooms were racially balanced?

NAACP President Sylvia Barnes said the survey is too little, too late.

"I don't see how a survey is going to make any difference," Barnes said.

Goldsboro city schools have not always been racially imbalanced. As recently as the early 90s, the classrooms were more or less racially mixed. But then, according to school officials, a new superintendent came along, and everything changed.

"There was massive White flight," Alleyne said. "What we're trying to do now is see if parents want that procedure back."

But if the survey results prove to be as divided as the classrooms, the School Board will be faced with a difficult decision.