OneMECK Coalition is an alliance of Mecklenburg County organizations and individuals that says:

YES to fair, equal and excellent educational opportunity for all CMS students; and

NO to policies and practices that maintain high-poverty schools and neighborhoods.

A Call to Action

We live in a community that has much to celebrate. A history of bold civic leadership has sparked an economic explosion and has won us a national reputation as one of the top cities in the U.S. to live and work. But our rising tide is not lifting all boats. We cannot achieve world-class greatness while our community remains divided by income and skin color, and while our rates of social mobility are among the lowest in the country.

OneMECK Coalition will work to:

• Highlight the well-established link between diverse schools and academic success for all children

• Support public policies and individual choices that promote mixed-income schools and neighborhoods – including a reimagined CMS pupil assignment plan

• Challenge ourselves and our community to take responsibility for the ways in which we fail our children – especially children of color – who are separated and isolated in high-poverty schools and neighborhoods

These goals arise from our understanding that:

• Our future depends on the success of all our community’s children
• All students benefit intellectually and socially from well-run mixed-income schools
• Decades of social science research has documented the shortcomings of high-poverty schools and neighborhoods and the benefits of diverse schools
• Our community’s many high-poverty schools and neighborhoods undermine our nation’s promise of opportunity for all
• Solving the problems created by high-poverty segregation requires the commitment of the entire community
• An effective student assignment plan must be linked to an effective neighborhood development plan

Will you join us?

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