The Washington Post, November 14, 2019 by Donna St. George
The battle in the Maryland suburbs started shortly after Howard County announced a school redistricting plan far more ambitious than many had expected.
It didn’t just aspire to relieve crowded schools. In a county that prides itself on diversity and inclusion, it aimed for further socioeconomic integration of schools, so that the neediest students were more spread out, easing concentrations of poverty.
But it came with a major shift: Nearly 7,400 children across income levels — about 1 in 8 of the county’s public school students — would be reassigned in the next year, many facing longer bus rides and some headed to schools with lower test scores or lesser reputations.
The public furor was intense and nonstop.
In Howard — nestled between Baltimore and Washington and ranked among the nation’s most affluent counties — parents led a protest outside the Mall in Columbia in September, urging that the plan be scrapped.