Former Wake County school board member Beverley Clark wasn't the only speaker firing bombs at Tuesday's school board meeting.

As noted in today's article, critics of the new choice-based student assignment plan and supporters of magnet schools made up much of the turnout for public comment. Several speakers urged the board to make major changes to the new assignment plan.

Speakers also defended the magnet school program, downplaying the data indicating they have larger achievement gaps than non-magnet schools. They also denied that magnets were schools within a school as terms such as "social justice" and "diversity" were often mentioned.

Christine Kushner has become only the second person to have raised more than $50,000 in a Wake County school board race.

Kushner's latest finance report filed Friday shows she had raised $50,406.93 as of Sept. 26. She has $31,383.11 on hand in the District 6 race.

School board candidates are required to file a "pre-election" report, postmarked no later than this upcoming Monday, showing their finances as of Sept. 26. Aside from reporting any new contributions of greater than $1,000 between Sept. 26 and Election Day, they don't have to file any additional reports until the end of the year or unless they're in a run-off.

Christine Kushner has already eclipsed the $25,000 fundraising mark for her Wake County school board campaign.

According to a new report filed today, Kushner has raised $27,271.24 in her bid to win the open District 6 seat. It gives Kushner a formidable campaign war chest edge in a race where no other person has announced yet.

The biggest donors in the new round of reporting are Ann Campbell and John Campbell, who both gave her $4,000. The couple have now given a total of $24,000 to Kushner and school board members Kevin Hill and Keith Sutton.