Wednesday, Nov. 04, 2009

Signs of the problem

Try, if you dare, to read the new school zone signs that have just gone up across Raleigh.

See if you can do it safely while driving 50 mph on, say, busy Edwards Mill Road.

Or 35 mph on your favorite neighborhood street.

If at any speed, anywhere.

Any driver who looks away from the road long enough to read and comprehend six lines of type on a small sign probably shouldn't be driving.

It takes several seconds to read them. By then, you're liable to be across the road, on the sidewalk, or in the trunk of the Prius in front of you.

The signs might as well be Russian or Chinese. You may as well text while driving.

Raleigh spent about $15,000 to post more than 800 new signs for 109 Wake County public schools in the city.

But don't blame Raleigh. It only reacted to the Wake County school board's unpopular, knuckleheaded move to send students home an hour early on "Wacky Wednesdays."

The idea was to give teachers more time to meet, evaluate their curricula, and improve their lessons - a noble goal pursued unwisely.

For starters, American children need to spend more time in school, not less.

And just breaking even with the hour lost on Wednesdays required tweaking other school starting and ending times during the week.

The result is too complicated and disrupts too many family schedules. I suspect Wacky Wednesday was the straw that broke the backs of Wake County voters this fall, contributing to the triumphs by school board candidates running against the status quo.

Lots of parents -- supporters of neighborhood schools and busing for diversity alike -- hope the new school board will dignify its launch by rescinding Wacky Wednesdays.

That's a sign we need.