In case you missed it, today's Sunday Forum includes some Q&As on Wake's diversity policy in advance of this week's UNC Center for Civil Rights conference on school resegregation.

As the articles note, Wake enjoys a national reputation for its diversity policy. Eric Houck, one of the presenters at this week's conference and former research director for the Wake Education Partnership, said in his interview that he's surprised more local people don't recognize Wake's reputation.

"One thing people in Wake County may not realize is just what kind of reputation Wake has nationally as an innovator and as a high-performing school district," Houck said in the Q&A with Rob Waters. "I'm surprised at how little weight that reputation seems to carry in your internal discussions."

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools may be closer to Wake academically than people think.

As noted in today's article, a new report from Queens University of Charlotte found that Wake's EOG scale scores are only slightly higher than Charlotte's scores. Low-income and academically gifted students in Charlotte are doing as good or better than their Wake peers.

According to the report:

One argument for neighborhood schools is that it will lead to more parental involvement.

But as noted in today's article by Ann Doss Helms, that's not a given in the case of McClintock Middle School in Charlotte. The end of busing for diversity in CMS caused schools like McClintock to see a rise in its low-income and minority students and a drop in its parental involvement.

As one parent noted, affluent parents have called McClintock a "ghetto school" and chosen to go elsewhere. With a low-income percentage of 72 percent, the school lacks the parent volunteer base that it had when the busing program was in place

If Wake dropped its diversity policy, schools in downtown Raleigh and Southeast Raleigh would likely have low-income rates similiar to or greater than McClintock's rate.

If push comes to shove, would you guys really be willing to pump more money into high-poverty schools in lieu of busing?

As noted in today's article, Charlotte-Mecklenburg's efforts to pump more money into high-poverty schools is being challenged by the weakening economy. When CMS abandoned race-based busing, it made a commitment to provide more money for those schools who would now suddenly be filled with low-income kids.

But funding for some programs at high-poverty schools would be reduced as part of a list of $53.3 million in possible spending cuts proposed by Peter Gorman, superintendent of CMS schools.

So how does Wake compare to Charlotte-Mecklenburg academically?

As noted in today's article, it depends on how you look at the data on state exams. Wake folks cite some data showing a big edge over CMS while others look at results showing both districts aren't too far apart.

You guys can decide which one is more relevant.

Over the past two years, a lot of people on the blog have thrown out the example of the KIPP schools to argue that Wake doesn't need to have socioeconomic diversity.

That case took a hit with the release of the new ABCs results on Thursday. As noted in today's Charlotte Observer, the KIPP School in Charlotte had a passing rate of 56.2 percent on the latest round of state tests.

"We're definitely disappointed. Our goals were higher,” said Principal Keith Burnam, a former math teacher who opened the KIPP school in northeast Charlotte last year, in the article.

There's a lot of work ahead for raising reading scores in Wake and statewide.

As noted in today's article, Wake's performance on the ABCs of Public Education was hammered by the new reading EOG exams. Wake's reading EOG passing rate was 66 percent in 2007-08, down from 91 percent the previous year.

But Wake is stressing that it's still better than the statewide reading EOG average of 57 percent.

County Commissioner Kenn Gardner and his opponent, Stan Norwalk, have some interesting things to say about school issues.

Gardner, who is being backed by groups critical of the school district's assignment policies, is highlighting his opposition to the year-round conversion plans. He was among the commissioners who voted to withhold funding to pay for the conversions.

"There aren't equal choices across the districts," Gardner said. "In some areas, you have very few year-round schools and in other areas you have almost all of the schools on year-round. If you're going to have a policy on year-round, you should be more even-handed."

The 20th day numbers are in and they're even further off than they were last year.

Wake says it had 137,706 students on the 20th day. That's 2,737 students below the projection that was used for this year's county budget, likely meaning commissioners will keep the $3 million that was withheld in case enrollment fell short.

It's the second year in a row that Wake has come in more than 2,000 students below projection. Enrollment was 2,084 students below projection last year.

Del Burns is no longer the highest-paid superintendent in the state.

The Charlotte Observer is reporting today that Charlotte-Mecklenburg Superintendent Peter Gorman got a $18,200 bonus and $7,150 raise on Tuesday. That lifts Gorman's total package to $320,350, above the $312,790 that Burns got earlier this month.

Gorman also got a perk that Burns doesn't have. At Gorman's request, he got a new clause in his contract promising to provide “reasonable security measures” to him and his family in case of “public controversy” or any other reason.