Former Wake County school board member Tom Oxholm did his best Peter Finch impersonation in a speech on school funding during Saturday's Great Schools in Wake Coalition forum.

In a speech mixed with data and fiery words, Oxholm implied that members of the school board majority are demagogues who don't know what they're talking about financially. He also threw in a New Jersey dig and explained that the move to socioeconomic diversity he helped implement in 2000 was done for financial reasons because they didn't have enough money for academic programs.

"Our assignment decision was never designed to help any particular student," Oxholm said of the board's vote in 2000. "Test scores for any one individual were not taken into account because of their school assignment and we knew it wouldn't make them any better a student. We also knew it wouldn't make them any worse of a student."

A trio of high schools in Wake County were honored by the state today for their graduation rates.

Green Hope High School was honored for having one of the top two graduation rates for schools of between 400 and 499 graduates. Panther Creek High won the same award for schools with 500 or more graduates.

Raleigh Charter High School got the same award for schools with 100 to 199 graduates.

Has the Wake County school system been deliberately not offering some students access to Algebra I in middle schools to boost test scores?

That's the charge made by Tony Gurley, chairman of the board of commissioners, in today's article. It came after commissioners got a presentation Monday about the SAS EVAAS report.

Much of the discussion Monday focused on how the report found that half the  Algebra I ready student in Wake were not taking the course in middle school.

If actions have consequences, the consequences for speaking out in favor of the diversity policy could be costly for one local law firm.

It didn't escape the attention of the new school board majority that prominent local attorney Wade Smith was one of the speakers at the Oct. 5 Friends of Diversity press conference. Smith had helped push the 1976 merger through when he was in the General Assembly.

One potential response by the new board majority is to drop the firm that Smith helped found, Tharrington Smith, as the school district's attorney.

UPDATE

Ann Majestic says Smith never agreed to attend the Friends of Diversity press conference and did not attend. His name was on the list of speakers put out by the event's organizer, Keith Sutton.

Smith had talked about the importance of the diversity policy in an article that ran the Sunday before the election.

Families in Wake and most of the Triangle have a tough decision to make next month.

Do they change their vacation plans now that spring break is being shortened because of snow days? As noted in today's article, it's a question that a lot of families are grappling with right now.

“Family is very important to us, and I hate to cancel my sister, so we might have to skip school, which I hate to do,” said Cary parent Patricia Snow in the article. “I’m sure we’re not the only ones.”

Wake took an academic hit but still fared better, on at least some measures, than the state on the new ABCs of Public Education results.

The number of Wake schools where at least 80 percent of students passed state exams and also met growth goals dropped from 69 to 30. But the lower total still accounted for 20 percent of Wake's schools, compared to 10 percent statewide.

A majority of Wake's schools, 58 percent, were listed as Schools of Progress, meaning between 60 and 80 percent of students passed state exams and also met growth goals.