The magnet school program could become even more of a wedge issue between Wake County school board candidates Cynthia Matson and Jim Martin in the District 5 race.

In an interview last week on the Rick & Donna Martinez Show on WPTF, Matson said the biggest difference between her and Martin is their views on "equity from district to district in terms of program offerings." She said "we need to focus on equity across the board, from district to district, so students don't have be to bused to the other side of the county to get something they can not get in their own district."

"Right now If you look at the map and you look at where magnet schools are, and you look at outlying areas, you'll see that certain individuals have to travel a very, very far distance in order too benefit from some of the magnet programs," Matson said.

How much value do you place on the national research on the benefits of maintaining socioeconomically diverse schools?

As noted in today's article, the importance of the social science research was a dividing point at Tuesday's forum between Richard Kahlenberg and Abigail Thernstrom. Kahlenberg, senior fellow at the Century Foundation, a liberal think tank, repeatedly pointed to what he called "dozens of studies" extolling the benefits of integration and the downsides of high-poverty schools.

"Let me begin with the four decades of research which suggests that having separate schools for low-income and middle class students will never provide genuine equal opportunity," Kahlenberg said.

CORRECTED THERNSTROM'S REFERENCE ON WHO GAMED THE SYSTEM IN TEXAS AND ADDED LINK AT END OF POST TO VIEW THE FORUM

The NAACP, the Coalition of Concerned Citizens for African American Children and the Wake Voter Coalition are urging churches and "supporters of diversity" to fight the return to neighborhood schools.

In a Tuesday press release, the three groups warn that the new school board majority "will jeopardize our children's educational opportunities" and that Southeast Raleigh schools will "not have quality resources" as neighborhood schools.

The press release says that Debra Goldman's support for extending electives in Cary and Apex could eliminate magnet programs. They also blast the idea of a KIPP Academy in Southeast Raleigh, which has been favorably mentioned by John Tedesco and Chris Malone, as being "another segregated school" that won't provide equal education for students.

Are there no bad schools in Raleigh?

That's the provocative message from Gerald Grant in his new book "Hope and Despair in the American City: Why there are no bad schools in Raleigh." As noted in today's article, Grant is in Raleigh to talk about his book at 7:30 p.m. at Quail Ridge Books & Music.

Grant believes that other school districts should emulate Wake's socioeconomic diversity policy. He calls Wake one of the few urban school systems that has made good on the democratic bargain of providing equal educational opportunities for all.

The Triangle has been shut out on the latest round of charter school openings.

None of the four local applicants made the list of six finalists who will be interviewed by the State Board of Education. Click here for a post detailing the local folks.

The six finalists are McKinnney Academy and Mountain Island Charter School in Mecklenburg County, New Bern International Academy in Craven County,Bear Grass Charter in Martin County, Lake Lure Classical Academy in Rutherford County and Henderson Collegiate in Vance County.

Click here for thumbnail info on all 18 applicants. Henderson Collegiate is interesting as it's basically a clone of the KIPP model of longer school days and greater parental involvement.

Over the past two years, a lot of people on the blog have thrown out the example of the KIPP schools to argue that Wake doesn't need to have socioeconomic diversity.

That case took a hit with the release of the new ABCs results on Thursday. As noted in today's Charlotte Observer, the KIPP School in Charlotte had a passing rate of 56.2 percent on the latest round of state tests.

"We're definitely disappointed. Our goals were higher,” said Principal Keith Burnam, a former math teacher who opened the KIPP school in northeast Charlotte last year, in the article.