Cash Michaels is speculating on whether Wake County Superintendent Tony Tata will do as he's publicly stated that he'll carry out the new student assignment directive.

In an article in The Carolinian out today, Michaels notes that Tata "has had several very public nasty fights with" the school board's new Democratic majority. The liberal Michaels also calls Tata "a conservative Tea Party sympathizer who sources say has US senatorial aspirations in a few years."

"With his heart really not into establishing a base school model with aspects of choice, and elements of stability, proximity, student achievement and diversity, will Tata drag his feet in meeting the 2013-14 school year deadline, or will the retired US Army brigadier general be the “good soldier,” and follow the directive?" Michaels writes.

How long will it be before the Democratic majority on the Wake County school board revisits and revises the student assignment policy to include wording on diversity?

As noted in this Carolinian article by Cash Michaels, school board vice chairman Keith Sutton told the audience at last week's Coalition of Concerned Citizens for African American Children meeting that the new majority will go back and look at Policy 6200. This comes after the former Republican majority removed wording about socioeconomic diversity from the policy.

"Long-term, there will be an effort by this board to go back and look at Policy 6200…,” Sutton said in the article, adding, “…and see how we can address not just issues of diversity, but looking at how we can balance and strengthen the policy by looking at specific targets with regard to not only the magnet populations, but also racial compositions and student achievement as well, and see how we  can balance that."

Here's more signs that life for Wake County Superintendent Tony Tata will be bumpier under the new Democratic school board majority.

In a post today on the liberal Schools Matter blog, Jim Horn points to Cash Michaels' article in The Carolinian about the crowding at Walnut Creek Elementary. Horn essentially calls for the new majority to get rid of Tata.

"We must wonder if the new sane school board majority will allow the incompetent and callous Tata to continue demolishing the reputation of Wake County Schools," Horn writes.

UPDATE

Click here to view the precis for the Walnut Creek capping vote, which includes eight schools the school board could choose from to send the overflow students to for the rest of the school year.

Two different pictures are emerging about the situation taking place at the new Walnut Creek Elementary School.

As noted in today's article, Wake County Schools Superintendent Tony Tata acknowledged that an enrollment cap is needed at Walnut Creek to deal with overcrowding. But Tata, pointing to the additional resources provided to the school, says that Walnut Creek is "on the right track."

In contrast, Cash Michaels calls the overcrowding situation a "crime." He accuses Tata and the Republican board majority "of literally turning their backs on the growing problem there."

UPDATE

Click here for an updated version of the article in The Carolinian that Cash Michaels wrote about the crowding situation at Walnut Creek.

Wake County Superintendent Tony Tata said today that he will ask the school board on Tuesday for permission to cap enrollment at the new Walnut Creek Elementary School in Southeast Raleigh.

Instead of just 780 students as planned, Walnut Creek now has more than 930 students. This comes amid all the scrutiny about Walnut Creek, where concerns that it would open as a high-poverty school with many low-performing students led to a mass infusion of additional resources.

"We wanted to make it a high demand school and we did," Tata said at today's press conference.

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."

Cash Michaels is defending himself against Wake County school board vice chairman John Tedesco's charges that his recent Carolinian article had "so many lies."

In a blog post Friday, Michaels says it's his job "to expose the record" when writing about the implications of Tedesco potentially becoming board chairman after the runoff election.

"To be blunt, Heather Losurdo isn’t the 800 lb. gorilla here," Michaels writes. "John Tedesco is."

Wake County school board vice chairman John Tedesco is accusing Cash Michaels of spreading lies in his new article in The Carolinian newspaper.

In the article, Michaels speculates on what could happen if Heather Losurdo wins the runoff election and Tedesco becomes the new board chairman. Michaels rips into Tedesco for things such as his firing as borough administrator in New Jersey, calling himself a family man, speaking at Tea Party rallies and his public war of words with board member Debra Goldman.

In a letter written today after the story was published, Tedesco tells Michaels "try not to use so many lies with only a sprinkle of truth."

Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker and U.S. Rep. Brad Miller are cheering victories by their fellow Democrats in the Wake County school board elections in interviews with Cash Michaels on his "Make It Happen" radio program.

Excerpts of the interviews were included in this article in the latest issue of The Carolinian. Meeker said Susan Evana overcame "an especially gerrymandered district" for a "remarkable" win over school board chairman Ron Margiotta.

“They rejected not only his style of politics - the secret meetings, the rudeness and all of that - but also the substance, pushing divisive issues, bringing in racial parts, trying to allow under-performing schools…all of that has been rejected by our citizens," Meeker said.

Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue, a critic of the Republican majority on the Wake County school board, is hoping the recent election results will send a message to other North Carolina school districts.

In an exclusive interview with Cash Michaels following her Friday keynote speech at the state NAACP convention, Perdue said she's "very hopefully that this (election results) will mean a time out for any school system in North Carolina that wants to go backward on kids who are at risk."

"It's the wrong thing for this state," Perdue added. "We're better than that, Cash."