Considering how much supporters of the diversity policy made Charlotte-Meckkenburg schools a boogeyman during the school board campaign, the new board members arguably are having the last laugh now.

As noted in today's article, the new 2009 state report cards show that Charlotte's black and low-income students are outperforming their peers in Wake on state EOG and EOC exams.

"We're not saying that Charlotte is the right way, but the fact that they're doing better than us shows how poorly we've been doing," said new school board member John Tedesco in the article.

The new N.C. School Report Cards are out with 2008-09 school year data.

Since these report cards have been used in the past to compare Wake and Charlotte-Mecklenburg, let's revisit the issue again. Wake gets less money and does better overall than CMS, but CMS does better among several subgroups.

Let's start with test results.

CORRECTED CMS OVERALL PASSING RATE ON BOTH EOGS. 

The return to neighborhood schools hasn't ended fights about student assignment in Charlotte.

As noted in today's Charlotte Observer, student assignment is a major factor in next month's Charlotte-Mecklenburg school boards elections. Fights over boundary lines for new schools brought hundreds of people to school district meetings and intensified interest in the elections.

Charlotte still uses diversity as a factor, albeit not a major one, in assigning students to neighborhood schools. Some candidates say CMS should "stop juggling demographics and create stable boundaries that reflect neighborhoods and communities."

But at least one candidate thinks CMS needs to do more to promote diversity.

Should Wake adopt a controlled choice model as a way to promote diversity without going to neighborhood schools?

That's the approach pitched in an op-ed piece today by Richard Kahlenberg, who says controlled choice would "honor school integration, minimize mandatory student reassignment and maximize parental choice." Kahlenberg, a senior researcher at The Century Foundation, is a big booster of Wake's current diversity policy who is trying to make the best of the recent school board election results.

Under controlled choice, the entire school district would essentially become a series of magnet schools. Parents would select from schools within a zone with the district making the selections to promote diversity.

School board candidate John Tedesco is responding to the attacks made that the new board will resegregate schools and do away with magnet programs.

Tedesco says they'll find a new way for schools that's not the Charlotte way or the Wake way. While they won't abolish magnet schools, Tedesco said they will look at changing "inequities" in the selection process that reduce the odds for gifted students in low-income communities from getting into the program.

The current selection system is weighted toward giving applicants from crowded, more affluent schools higher priority. That's because the base populations at magnet schools usually have a high percentage of poor kids.

Below is the post he sent in response to the new NAACP/CCCAAC attack on the board. At his suggestion, I'm turning his reply into a separate post.

How will a return to neighborhood schools reshape property values in Raleigh and Wake County?

As noted in today's article by Sarah Ovaska, one person told Raleigh real estate agent Anne Sherron that he's backing out of a deal because of the school board election results. She said the person had been looking at moving his family and his start-up technology company to Raleigh from Austin, Texas.

“He emailed me and said I’ve put my decision on hold indefinitely until I see whether Raleigh is going to end up like Charlotte,” said Sherron, a supporter of the diversity policy, in the article.

School board member Ron Margiotta is talking about a more gentle move to neighborhood schools in 2010-11.

As noted in today's article, Margiotta wants to see if they could make it possible for parents to request seats at neighborhood schools in 2010. This would be done in lieu of a forced shift back.

The question on the minds of a lot of people is whether the new school board will live up to campaign promises about neighborhood schools, year-round schools and ending the diversity policy.

Some people are anxiously hoping for the changes to come while others are dreading the future. But as noted in today's article, the new board members aren't sure yet how they'll turn their promises into reality so they're urging parents to give them some time.

"We haven't had neighborhood schools in such a long time that we have to see what we have in our neighborhoods," said new board member Deborah Prickett.

The school election results are getting some attention from the folks over in Charlotte.

Mecklenburg County Commissioner Bill James, arguably the most conservative member of their board, is calling Tuesday's results "a positive sign reflecting what happened in Mecklenburg County 10 years ago."

Supporters of the diversity policy have claimed that a victory by the WSCA candidates would put Wake on the road to Charlotte.

Here's what James sent on his e-mail message list:

Here's school board candidate Rita Rakestraw's final pitch to voters in District 1.

In this mailer, Rakestraw warns that "abandoning diversity and economic balance in our schools hurts!" She's telling voters "it will cost more tax dollars and harm education," again using Charlotte-Mecklenburg as a boogeyman.