The idea of the Tea Party having taken over the Wake County school system is spreading rapidly on the Internet after the publication of Wednesday's Washington Post article.

Numerous news stories, blog posts and opinion pieces have used the Post piece as their source for talking about how the Tea Party has scrapped integration in Wake County's schools.

One of the latest examples is a blog post today in The Economist, where R.A., a correspondent decries the end of Wake's diversity policy. R.A. mentions that he used to be a magnet student in Wake.

Both The Economist and Education Week had their takes last week on the fight over socioeconomic diversity in Wake County schools.

In The Economist article, the writer speculates whether Wake's future looks like that of Charlotte-Mecklenburg, where the percentage of high poverty and high minority schools has increased since the district ended busing for diversity. The article says that efforts by CMS parents in poor areas to get into wealthier schools have often been impossible to grant because of capacity limits.

"(School board member John) Tedesco bristles at the notion that Charlotte is the future; he believes that with better management and more efficient spending Wake can avoid Charlotte’s errors, and he may be right," according to the article in the British weekly. "But Wake’s school system faces a $20m shortfall, which makes the board’s task all the more daunting."

The Economist is offering a sneak peak at its story on this week's Wake County school board vote on the community schools resolution.

In a blog post today, the correspondent writing the story notes the low turnout at last fall's school board election. Critics of the new board majority complain that turnout was low while supporters say far more votes were cast than in prior board elections.

The national coverage of the Wake County school system's move away from busing for diversity is escalating.

NBC's "Today Show" did a live shot from a Wake school this morning. Also today, the Los Angeles Times covered Tuesday's vote in favor of neighborhood schools.

The Christian Science Monitor covered the story yesterday. You may also see coverage soon in the Economist, which had a writer at the board meeting.

UPDATE

Changed the link for the LA Times article in case you want to leave comments there.

See end of post for link to watch Today Show segment.