Wake County (N.C.) board ends mandatory assignments to year-round campuses

From The Raleigh News & Observer: A new school board majority in the Wake County (N.C.) district has ended mandatory assignment of students to year-round schools. By a 5-4 vote, the ruling coalition approved a resolution that says mandatory year-round assignments will end beginning with the 2010-11 school year. Supporters of mandatory year-round schools have argued that they save on construction costs because they can hold more students than traditional-calendar schools. But critics have countered that enrollment has grown much less than expected and that the year-round calendar is a hardship for many families. More than 44,000 students now attend 51 year-round schools. The majority aren't there by choice.