March 2 could be a memorable day for former Wake County school board chairman Ron Margiotta.

In the morning, Margiotta will be in court as a potential witness in the case against the Rev. William Barber of the state NAACP, who was arrested on charges of disrupting school board meetings in 2010. In the evening, Margiotta will receive the Civitas Institute's inaugural Courage in Leadership Award.

"We need to respect politicians who do the right thing in the face of criticism and hostility," said Francis DeLuca, president of Civitas, about the conservative group's award to Margiotta.

Wake County school board candidate Venita Peyton raised less than $1,700 in her underfunded and unsuccessful campaign bid last year.

Her last campaign report filed Monday makes it hard to tell what she got. But if you combine it with this prior one, it shows Peyton raised $1.645 and spent $1.529.96. Democratic school board member Keith Sutton raised $33,327 and spent $32,484.31 to win the seat he was first appointed to in 2009.

Peyton, who received 19 percent of the vote, was the only one of the five Republican-backed school board candidates who didn't get a donation from Art Pope or Bob Luddy. Both men gave donations to the other four GOP-backed candidates, who also lost last fall.

The Wake County Democratic Party outspent the Wake County Republican Party by more than two to one last year to help win the pivotal school board battle.

While it's hard to say how much was specifically spent on the Wake County school board races, the campaign finance reports would suggest that the Democrats were more active in getting their candidates elected. For instance, Democrats had a target of $80,000 in their get-out-the-vote efforts for the October races.

According to their year-end report, the Wake County Democratic Party received $176,227.18 and spent $183,252.88. According to their year-end report, the Wake County Republican Party raised $81,965.98 and spent $83.089.33.

Former Wake County school board chairman Ron Margiotta raised nearly $65,000 in his unsuccessful re-election bid last fall.

In his year-end report filed Monday, Margiotta reported raising $64,902.72 and spending $61,006.11 during the hard-fought District 8 battle. The Republican incumbent outspent his Democratic opponent, Susan Evans, who raised $43,386.53 and spent $39.077.16.

But the gap narrows to nearly even and could possibly in the end be in Evans' favor when you throw in all the outside money that was spent to topple Margiotta from what was thought to be a safe seat in Southwest Wake.

Wake County school board candidate Heather Losurdo raised nearly $100,000 in her unsuccessful campaign bid.

In her final campaign report filed Monday, Losurdo reported raising $99,207.29 and spending $98,207.83 It was a record amount for a Wake school board race.

The Republican outspent her main District 3 opponent, Democrat Kevin Hill, who raised $68,598 and spent $54,322. But the numbers look to be more in Hill's favor when you factor in the outside spending.

A member of the Great Schools in Wake Coalition is quoted in a article critical of school choice.

In an article originally published by Alternet, a liberal online newsmagazine, GSIW member Karey Harwood charges that school choice supporters are out to create a "divided society of winners and losers." The article, originally titled "5 Biggest Lies About the Right-Wing Corporate-Backed War on Our Schools" was reposted Tuesday by Salon.com for National School Choice Week.

"When they talk about choice, whose choices are they referring to?" Harwood says in the article. "Are the children of people who are savvy enough to get out of the public schools the only children who are worth educating in our society? What happens to the children who don’t get out?"

Wake County school board candidate Donna Williams raised close to $50,000 in her unsuccessful bid to win the District 6 seat.

In her final 2011 campaign finance report filed earlier this month, Williams reported raising $48,335.96. The Republican spent all the money and closed out the campaign committee.

Her main Democratic opponent, Christine Kushner, raised $51,343.47 and spent $37,123.21 to easily win the Raleigh seat. Combined, Williams and Kushner spent nearly $100,000.

The final campaign reports for last fall's elections are starting to come in and they show that Cynthia Matson was at a major funding disadvantage in her bid to win a seat on the Wake County school board.

In Matson's final report filed Tuesday, the Republican-backed candidate reported having raised and spent $13,807.10. Her Democratic opponent in District 5, Jim Martin, hasn't filed his final report yet. But Martin had reported raising $31,534.46 as of Sept. 26.

The biggest contributor in Matson's latest report is conservative businessman Art Pope, who gave $4.000. All five Republican school board candidates have reported receiving donations from Pope except for Venita Peyton, whose final report isn't in yet.

Cash Michaels is speculating on Debra Goldman becoming the new Wake County school board vice chairwoman and lists three actions that he says the new Democratic majority must do.

In this week's issue of The Carolinian, Michaels writes that the new majority must revise the student assignment plan "to ensure that no more high poverty schools are created, and that low performing students have access to high performing schools." He also says the new majority will "also have to prioritize the removal of several acts by the current GOP board."

"First, they must cancel any contract the board has with the conservative Civitas Institute, the right-wing think tank funded by conservative activist Art Pope that was hired to train new Wake School Board members," Michaels writes. "Their services are clearly not needed now."

The Huffington Post is calling the Wake County school board election results a case of how "voters repudiated the Tea Party agenda backed by North Carolina's notorious political boss, Art Pope."

In a piece today for the liberal Huffington Post, Michael Carmichael writes that Democratic election victories across North Carolina were a "landslide." But Carmichael says "the coup de grace took place in Boss Pope's backyard." He writes that the election victory by Kevin Hill is "a major embarrassment" for Pope.

"In the run-off for the controlling seat on the Wake County School Board, progressive Democrat Kevin Hill defeated Pope's Tea Party Republican candidate, Heather Losurdo," Carmichael writes. "Hill stalwartly opposed the Pope-orchestrated re-segregation of Wake County Schools, while Losurdo supported the return to 'neighborhood schools,' a code for the end of cultural, racial and ethnic diversity."