Another round of "Moral Monday" protests are on tap today as the state NAACP continues its weekly protests at the General Assembly.

In a pair of articles Friday, the Rev. William Barber, president of the state NAACP, and Yvonne Brannon, head of the Great Schools in Wake Coalition, cite the 2010 Wake County school board protests as being successful forerunners of the current protests.

In Friday's Associated Press article, Barber says doubters of the effectiveness of the current protests should look to what happened when they fought the student assignment efforts of the former Republican school board majority in Wake.

Some familiar names will be speaking out at a press conference this morning to complain about the education bills being promoted by Republican state lawmakers.

Former Congressman Bob Etheridge and Public Schools First NC are holding a press conference at 11 a.m. in Green Hope Park in Cary "in support of strong public schools." Other speakers include Adrienne Lumpkin and Lynn Edmonds, both leaders in the Great Schools in Wake Coalition.

The group charges that lawmakers are leading "a race to the bottom" with proposed measures such as dropping class size limits, cutting back on teacher assistants and providing voucher money for families to attend private schools.

Public School First NC, whose members include several groups who've been involved in the Wake County school fights over the past three years, will host the "Let's Keep Public Dollars in Public Schools" forum on Monday.

Public Schools First says the forum will be "an important conversation about the state of public education." The group has been a vocal critic of the education changes being promoted by the Republican-led General Assembly.

The event's co-sponsors include the Great Schools in Wake Coalition, the Coalition of Concerned Citizens for African American Children and the Raleigh-Wake Citizens Association.

The forum will be from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Pullen Memorial Baptist Church, 1801 Hillsborough Street in Raleigh.

The Great Schools in Wake Coalition is telling its members they need to continue to fight against the Wake County school board redistricting bill because "we must stop this interference in local representation."

In action alert dated Monday, GSIW asks people to contact Wake County House members to let them know they oppose Senate Bill 325. The bill, which passed the state Senate, is awaiting discussion in the state House elections committee.

GSIW offers talking points to use, including how "redrawing lines that racially polarize the community does harm to our county." They suggest mirroring locally a bill proposed in the General Assembly that would create a nonpartisan redistricting process for state legislative seats.

You've got a role reversal taking place about the 2011 redistricting map that were adopted by the Wake County school board.

The school board is expected to pass on April 23 a resolution endorsing the current election boundaries. It's one way of how the board is opposing Senate Bill 325, which would change when and how Wake school board members are elected.

What you're likely going to see, based on last week's board discussion, is that the resolution will be supported by board members who either voted against the 2011 map or who criticized it at the time. You'll probably see board members who voted for the map in 2011 not backing this new resolution.

The Wake County legislative delegation should expect to hear more today from people opposing bills that would change how Wake County school board members are elected and take away their control of school construction.

WakeUP Wake County is urging people to show up again like they did at the March 25 public hearing. The new hearing takes place before the Wake school board will discuss during Tuesday's work session supporting the current election districts instead of going to the ones in S325, the school board election bill.

With WakeUP Wake, the Great Schools in Wake Coalition and the Wake County Democratic Party urging people to show up March 25 to oppose the school bills, you can guess what the turnout was like. Here are some of the comments from the March 25 hearing.

Members of the Great Schools in Wake Coalition found out Wednesday that the state Senate is going to be tougher when it comes to dealing with protesters.

Several GSIW members, who are part of the new Public Schools First NC group, attended today's Senate Education Committee to speak out against S337, the bill that would change how charter schools were governed.

Sen. Dan Soucheck, the committee co-chairman, said they weren't going to hear from the public today because they had public comment at last week's meeting. He said he wanted to hear from the committee members today.

In protest, the GSIW members put scarves around their faces. They left the meeting room after the sergeant-at-arms, with handcuffs out, approached them.

UPDATE

Click here for the Progressive Pulse blog post from the liberal N.C. Policy Watch about what happened. Patty Williams says in the blog post that the protesters were threatened with arrest.

The Insider is reporting that Weaver said the protesters could have been charged with violating a state law that prohibits people from wearing masks or hoods to disguise their identities on state property.

The Great Schools in Wake Coalition is mobilizing people to show up at Monday's Wake legislative delegation meeting to speak out against the bills that would change school ownership and school board elections.

"Both the Great Schools in Wake coalition and Friends of Dorothea Dix Park have issued alerts asking their members and supporters to show up en masse — and, for the Dix Park crowd, wearing green," writes Bob Geary in this blog post today the liberal Independent Weekly.

GSIW had already mobilized people last month in an unsuccessful bid to persuade the Wake County Board of Commissioners to withdraw their request for the legislation.

GSIW is backing the Wake County school board in opposing legislation that would take away its ownership of schools and change how and when board members are elected.

UPDATE

Due to the large crowd expected, the meeting has been moved to Room 643 of the Legislative Office Building, 300 N. Salisbury St., Raleigh.

See end of post for more info on Great Schools' action alert and an email from the Wake County Democratic Party also urging people to speak out Monday.

At this point the one group that's more committed to getting a school construction bond referendum on the Oct. 8 ballot is the Wake County Board of Commissioners and not the school board.

This afternoon, the commissioners will vote on adopting their 2013 goals. The education goal is to "work with the Wake County Public School System on a capital program which will be supported by the citizens and voters of Wake County for a scheduled bond referendum in the Fall of 2013."

At the last joint meeting, commissioners were vocal about getting the bond on the fall ballot while several school board members questioned the timing, suggesting that a 2014 bond might be better. You could see more of this discussion on Thursday when both boards hold their next joint meeting on the bond issue.

WakeUP Wake County, the parent group of the Great Schools in Wake Coalition, has also been talking about postponing the school bond to 2014 to try to get a transit sales tax referendum on the ballot this year.

UPDATE

Commissioners approved today the 2013 goals with the bond issue as the top education goal.

Members of the Great Schools in Wake Coalition and other supporters of the Democratic school board majority turned their attention Monday on the Republican majority on the Wake County Board of Commissioners.

During the public comment section, several speakers criticized the commissioners for asking for state legislation to take over ownership of schools, to be able to give money to help build charter schools and to change the way school board members are elected. It also came with a warning.

"I hope that the Wake County Commissioners don't want to radicalize lots of middle-class parents," said Robert Siegel. "But if you do start messing with our schools, we're going to respond the same way we responded to the extremist school board of 2009. I don't think you want Wake County to become a national disgrace again."