The Civitas Institute, a right-wing Raleigh foundation, claims that mismanagement by a Durham nonprofit cost almost 250 needy children their child-care subsidies in December.

Those responsible for managing the subsidies, though, say the claim has little or no basis in fact.

"It's not based on anything," said Tracy Zimmerman, spokeswoman for North Carolina Partnership for Children, who called the Civitas claim "outrageous."

“The Civitas Institute and [author] Andrew Henson have it all wrong,” the Child Care Services Association of Durham said in a prepared response.   

In November, the Child Care Services Association, which administers a Smart Start scholarship program with an annual budget of about $3.4 million, informed about 200 families that their subsidies would end Dec. 17.

Smart Start is a state program that operates through local agencies to promote and serve healthy early-childhood development. Durham's Partnership for Children is the local Smart Start affiliate, and contracts with Child Care Services to administer the Smart Start scholarships.

“Unfortunately, funding was just not available to continue all of the families served,” said the Association’s statement. (link below) “Smart Start funding had been cut.  State subsidy funds had been cut.  Durham’s Partnership for Children faced an expanded population of vulnerable children.”

Those are the same reasons the Association gave in November. In a report released this morning, however (http://www.nccivitas.org/2011/childcare-subsidy-goes-bust-kids-go-home), Civitas claims that the association's overspending used up almost two-thirds of the budget in the first half of the fiscal year 2010-11.

"Serious questions remain," the Civitas report says, "as to how such a serious structural deficit could have gone unnoticed or unreported." Civitas claimed its report was based on unspecified "internal documents" but also said it had been unable to get detailed information from the association, which claimed its records are not subject to the state open-records law.

In response, the Association said it follows requirements for program and fiscal audits and reports to funders and the state auditor. “CCSA has consistently been awarded a clean bill of financial health.” It also claimed that Civitas investigator Henson “used aggressive, inappropriate and threatening tactics to bully CCSA” to supply him with information.

Zimmerman said the state Partnership for Children knows of no mismanagement and that regular examinations of the association's performance gave no indication it was not operating properly.
 

Documents:

Francis DeLuca, president of the conservative Civitas Institute, argues that the Wake County school system doesn't need accreditation for its high schools from AdvancED.

In an op-ed piece today, DeLuca criticizes AdvancED for accrediting low-performing high schools and accuses the group of trying to usurp the school board's authority. DeLuca also argues that Wake high school students will still do well without accreditation.

"Continuing a relationship with an organization that demonstrably fails to guarantee academic quality and wants to second-guess local voters underscores why the Wake system should sever its relationship with AdvancED and if necessary seek alternative accreditation," DeLuca writes.

For now at least, the Wake County school board still plans to hold two half-day work sessions on Feb. 4 and 9 on board member Kevin Hill's consensus-building approach to student assignment.

On Tuesday, school board chairman Ron Margiotta suggested "holding in abeyance" the work sessions. But the board agreed to go ahead with them after vice chairwoman Debra Goldman and the Democrats objected.

Margiotta suggested postponing the meetings until after a Feb. 15 meeting with Laura Evans, senior director of growth and planning, and the Feb. 25-26 board retreat with new Superintendent Tony Tata.

Mark Elgart, president of AdvancED, is trying to defuse allegations that the accreditation agency has prejudged the Wake County school system and is trying to get the school board to restore the diversity policy.

In an interview Friday on "The Rick and Donna Martinez Show" on WPTF, Elgart said it's a "misnomer" that their review is all about the student assignment policy. He said he's not telling Wake how to assign students.

"I have made this clear to the school system: You have a right to assign students to attend schools in the manner in which you see is in the best interests of the community," Elgart said. "And we accredit more than 25,000 schools across this country and school systems have a myriad of ways in which they  assign students to schools and the dominant one we all know is neighborhood schools."

Wake County school board members Chris Malone and John Tedesco got some additional training on Friday, courtesy of the Civitas Institute.

Malone and Tedesco were among a dozen school board members who attended a training session in Raleigh organized by Civitas, according to Bob Luebke, senior policy analyst for the conservative group. School board members are required under state law to get a minimum of 12 hours of training a year.

Friday's session topics included:

There's more backlash today from Wake County school board chairman Ron Margiotta and Bob Luebke of the conservative Civitas Institute on the use of student achievement in the assignment plan being developed by Michael Alves.

In an interview on the Bill LuMaye show on WPTF, Margiotta used the "walks like a duck analogy" to say that the use of student achievement in the formula is just a way to bring back busing for diversity.

"This is a quota system by just a different name," Margiotta said. "It's not a quota system by race, nor is it by socioeconomics. But now the intent is to use student achievement to move kids around. It's nothing but another quota system. It's something the county of Wake, the parents in this county strongly object to."

Unlike their colleagues in New Hanover County, members of the Wake County school board didn't feel a need to have a separate vote this week on whether the district's policies are contributing to segregation.

At issue is new language this year that allows the state Board of Education to withhold money from the disadvantaged students supplemental fund (DSSF) to school boards whose policies "have contributed to or is contributing to increased segregation of schools on the basis of race or socioeconomic status."

School districts had a Wednesday deadline to send their DSSF plan to the state with a certification form that their policies aren't contributing to increased segregation.

Bob Luebke is joining those who've criticized Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker's call for Wake County mayors to form a committee to review the developing student assignment plan.

In a blog post today, Luebke of the conservative Civitas Institute disputes Meeker's statement that the goal is to form an "objective group." Luebke questions how objective the group will be considering that Meeker and his wife, school board member Anne McLaurin, are both supporters of the old diversity policy.

The Wake County school system is firing back at AdvancED with a sharply written response to the accreditation agency's plan to conduct a special review of the district.

In Wake's response, school board attorney Ann Majestic repeatedly writes that AdvancED is going beyond its authority to accredit individual high schools by asking questions about student assignment and other policies.

“The Board’s overriding concern is that your request seems to have little, if anything, to do with the accreditation status of individual high schools in Wake County,” Majestic writes in the Sept. 8 letter to AdvancED. “Instead, they strongly suggest that AdvancED wishes to second guess the merits of the Board’s decision to transition to a community-based school assignment plan.”

It's not surprising that supporters of the Wake County school board majority are unhappy about the award that Gov. Bev Perdue gave Saturday to the Rev. William Barber, president of the state NAACP.

In a blog post today, Bob Luebke of the conservative Civitas Institute writes that the Order of the Long Leaf Pine award given to Barber raises questions. Luebke writes that Barber is being lauded for opposing a move to neighborhood schools in Wake that's used in most of the state's school districts.

"If Perdue finds Barber’s work so laudatory, you have to wonder why either has said little to nothing about that same policy which has been in place for years in many of the state’s other school districts. The selective indignation makes it difficult to take either’s comments seriously."

UPDATE

Click here for a WTVD story in which Kathleen Brennan, a founder of Wake CARES, said she was "shocked and appalled" that Perdue gave Barber the award. But Patty Williams, the communications person for the Great Schools in Wake Coalition, said that Barber "deserves to be noted by the community as an advocate for all chidlren."