It's not much of an understatement to say that people across the country are waiting to see what the Wake County school board does today with the resolution that would dump the diversity policy for neighborhood schools.

Newspapers and television stations around the country are running the Associated Press story about today's school board vote on the community-based school assignment resolution. This comes after the Sunday New York Times article.

Gary Orfield, a UCLA professor who studies busing and civil rights, warned that abandoning the diversity policy means Raleigh can expect to see some of the same impoverished, troubled schools as Detroit, Philadelphia, New York and Chicago.

It looks like the world will hear about what's happening in the Wake County school system in the Sunday edition of The New York Times.

The Old Grey Lady has posted the story on its web site today. It isn't nearly as glowing about the school system as compared the 2005 Sunday front-page story about the diversity policy.

“My feeling is that it’s very important for people in Wake to drive over to Charlotte and see what’s happened,” said Gary Orfield, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, who studies school busing, in the article.

Mecklenburg County Commissioner Bill James is weighing in on Del Burns' resignation as Wake County schools superintendent.

In an e-mail message today, the conservative Republican calls the resignation "the best thing for the GOP majority and for Wake Parents/students." He says Wake needs to use a national search to bring in a person "strong enough to stare down the rabid rabble that attempt to scream down the new majority."

"The Sup’s decision to quit hands a major victory to the new majority as long as they do not lose their nerve," James writes.

Do you think Raleigh/Wake County was or is the third best U.S. city public school system?

That's where Raleigh wound up last week in the ParentingFun411 blog for its list of top 10 U.S. city public school systems. Don't be surprised if this list, which is now being picked up by other web sites, is used by critics of the new Wake County school board majority to argue that major changes aren't needed.

The new list sure looks a lot like the one released in 2004 by Forbes Magazine for its "Best Education in the Biggest Cities" list. The order of the schools, data and words read a lot alike.

This week's issue of the Independent has an interesting take on what could happen if Wake County school board member John Tedesco gets his community assignment zone plan implemented.

In the cover article, the Independent tries to see what the school system could be like if Tedesco's model is implemented. In the liberal weekly's division of the district into 14 zones, it found that two would have schools with heavy concentrations of low-income students.

Asst. Supt. Chuck Dulaney estimated for the Indy that if school assignments are based on proximity to students' homes, as indicated in the policy presented Dec. 1, seven to 10 high-poverty schools with F&R rates above 80 percent would be created.

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.

The Wake County school system has made it into the N.C. Public School Forum's "Ten To Watch 2010" issues list.

As the Forum somewhat melodramatically puts it, "The Future of Wake County Schools Will Be Watched By People Around the Nation." You get the impression from the article that the group isn't thrilled with the direction that the new school board majority could take.

A group of 20 N.C. State professors is urging the new Wake County school board majority not to scrap the diversity policy.

In an op-piece published today, the professors say Wake's diversity policy has benefitted both the school system and N.C. State. They warn that scrapping the policy will harm the community "for decades to come."

"Many of us have children or grandchildren in the Wake County Public School System," according to the authors of the piece. "We urge the new Wake County Board of Education to recognize the foundational importance of the diversity policy to the success of Wake County schools."

Raleigh Charter High and four schools in the Wake County school system have made U.S. News & World Report's 2010 list of best public high schools.

Raleigh Charter came in 24th on the list that was released online at midnight. It's the second year in a row that the school has made the U.S. News top 100 list, earning "gold medal" recognition.

Next comes silver medal schools, including Athens Drive High, Cary High, Green Hope High and Sanderson High.

The school district got some bad financial news earlier this month.

As noted in today's article, Wake and other school districts that are home to charter schools are now figuring how much more money they owe to comply with a state court ruling. At issue is how it seems Wake and other districts undercounted the amount of money it needed to turn over to charter schools.

With 13 charter schools and more than 5,000 charter students this year, the price tag could be big in Wake, especially if charters ask for the money retroactively. Wake is still calculating the amount it owes.