A total of 26 people have pre-registered to speak at Broughton High School at today's Wake County school board public hearing on the student assignment plan.

A number of the usual people who've criticized the school board majority over the past two years are on the list, including Neil Riemann, Rhonda Curtright,  Patty Williams, Greg Flynn, Heather Koons, Tom Rhodes and Amy Lee. One person also on the list is Seth Keel.

I haven't received word yet on whether Keel, who is still banned at showing up at school board meetings following his arrest, will be allowed to speak today. It will be interesting seeing whether Keel, the Rev. William Barber and all the other people who've been barred from attending board meetings will be allowed back if the Democrats regain the board majority.

Over the past two years, some speakers have railed against the board majority for leaving the ban in place. Their trespassing cases still haven't been adjudicated yet.

UPDATE

Keel is not being allowed to speak at the meeting over the objections of him and his supporters.

The District 6 race for the Wake County school board is looking like it could be the most expensive of all the races this fall.

The new campaign report filed today by Christine Kushner shows she has raised $41,565.83 as of Aug. 30 with $33,256.54. The new report filed today by Donna Williams shows she has raised $27,806.83 as of Aug. 30 with $22,634.43 on hand.

The biggest donor in Kushners' new report is the Democratic Women of Wake County, which gave $1,100. She also received small donations from former school board members John Gilbert, Lori Millberg, Tom Oxholm and Susan Parry.

None of the speakers had good things to say Tuesday about the proposed Wake County school board redistricting maps.

As noted in today's article, most of the speakers were critics of the board majority who questioned both the way the new maps were developed and the boundary lines used. Another gripe was about school board members Chris Malone and John Tedesco saying ahead of time they wouldn't support making revisions to the maps.

Jim Martin kicked things off with questions about the changes, particularly in southwestern Wake. He said that area has been "a pawn in annexation discussions" and other issues.

UPDATE

Click here to view the proposed map from Jim Martin.

Wake County school board member John Tedesco is drawing fire for expressing support for abolishing the U.S. Department of Education.

In a post Sunday on the Progressive Pulse blog of the liberal N.C. Policy Watch, Greg Flynn admonishes Tedesco for his Facebook comments. Flynn characterizes it as "absurdity" and a case of "you can't make this stuff up."

On Friday, Bill Isley posted on Tedesco's Facebook wall that "Would be great if we could shut down & eliminate the Fed. Dept. of Educ.......and return that $50Billion to the states/local. Guess that would be about a Billion $$$ per state.....hm hm."