Is Senate Bill 325 essentially a second try for Republicans to hold a majority on the Wake County school board?

As noted in today's article, the stated main purpose of the new legislation is to give individual Wake County voters the ability to elect a second school board member. But the bill also lets state Republican lawmakers rewrite the boundaries for Wake's school board districts.

This comes after the redistricting plan approved by the former Republican school board majority in 2011 didn't turn out as some thought that it would in ensuring GOP control of the state's largest school district.

The new bill that would change the way Wake County school board members are elected is getting opposition from liberal groups.

In this blog post today, Rob Schofield of the liberal N.C. Policy Watch writes that S325 "would change the rules of how school board members are elected in the capital county in a way that is clearly designed to alter the board’s power structure and move things in a conservative direction."

"It’s hard to believe that anyone could advance such a blatant power grab with a straight face," Schofield writes. "...Given their record thus far in the 2013 session, however, it appears that neither shame nor embarrassment are conditions that tend to afflict the conservative ideologues running the show on Jones Street.

One clarification on the comments that Schofield writes about Joe Bryan, chairman of the Wake County Board of Commissioners. What Bryan was surprised about Wednesday is that the bill didn't go as far as they wanted to let voters pick a majority of school board seats.

Education historian Dianne Ravitch is coming to Raleigh next week for a public forum on education issues.

Ravitch will speak March 21 at the liberal N.C Policy Watch's "Crucial Conversation" event, which is billed as a chance to speak with "America's leading spokesperson for public education." The event is co-sponsored by two other liberal groups, the North Carolina Justice Center's Education & Law Project and Public Schools First NC.

Ravitch has become a favorite with liberal groups for her criticism of school choice and standardized testing. Ravitch is an author, political commentator, research professor of education at New York University and a former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education.

Members of the Wake County school board's Democratic majority and the Great Schools in Wake Coalition are offering their perspectives on the search for a new superintendent to the liberal N.C. Policy Watch.

In an article published Thursday, author Lucy Hood says GSIW members want the next superintendent to be a career educator, someone with experience in the classroom. This would come after GSIW had opposed the hiring of former Superintendent Tony Tata, a retired U.S. Army brigadier general.

“No more professional hires from the military, or business,” says GSIW program coordinator Patty Williams in the article. “I’m a business person. I do not believe business people should be running a school district. …. The superintendent needs to be professionally trained and a highly experienced educator.”

Wake County school board member and state House candidate Chris Malone is drawing complaints from liberal groups for a robocall saying he wants "to get good kids out of failing schools."

In a blog post Wednesday for the liberal Independent Weekly, Will Huntsberry quotes Malone saying in the robocall that "I want to get good kids out of failing schools, so every single kid can have a great education." The post also has the full text of the robocall.

"Such logic seems flawed," Huntsberry writes. "If Malone pulls the 'good kids' — Does this mean white kids? Rich kids? Smart kids? — out of 'failing schools,' it’s unclear how the failing school will then be more likely to provide a 'great education.'"

Could the flap involving Wake County school board members Debra Goldman and Chris Malone affect the accreditation status of the district's high schools?

In a blog post Tuesday for the Progressive Pulse, which is maintained by the liberal N.C. Policy Watch, Lucy Hood points to the speculation from former school board chairman Ron Margiotta that Goldman might have voted against the zone plan in October 2010 to get back at Malone. The publicity about the 2010 police report comes as AdvancED is waiting for an update from Wake on how it's handling the concerns the group previously made.

Mark Elgart, president of AdvancED, has recently voiced his concerns about the new school board majority firing Superintendent Tony Tata and dropping the choice plan.

"Already displeased with the school board’s penchant for partisan voting, it will be very interesting to see what Elgart has to say about this new brand of partisan, or 'anti-partisan,' voting," Hood writes about Goldman's 2010 vote.

The firing of Wake County Schools Superintendent Tony Tata got some air time at the end of the latest edition of NC SPIN that aired over the weekend.

On the show, pundits from the left and right agreed that it was not a politically good decision for the Democratic school board majority to have fired Tata at this time. Panelists also talked about whether the next permanent superintended should be a lifelong educator.

Tom Campbell, the show host, opened the segment by saying that following Wake County schools has been like "watching a yo-yo." Campbell asked John Hood, president of the conservative John Locke Foundation, what he thought of Tata's firing, which he said "was ugly" and "many say it wasn't handled well."

Liberals are continuing to criticize former Wake County Superintendent Tony Tata for taking his severance package after being fired by the school board.

In the new issue of the liberal Independent Weekly out today, there's an item saying "Tony Tata took my lunch money." The Indy says that Tata's $253,625 severance package would buy 126,812 full-price lunches for Wake elementary school students or 634,062 reduced-price lunches.

It's similar to the complaint made in a blog post last Wednesday by Rob Schofield of the liberal N.C. Policy Watch, who wrote it's not moral or right for Tata to take the money.

Last week's firing of Wake County Schools Superintendent Tony Tata drew a variety of responses ranging from praise to condemnation.

For instance, Wake County Republican Party Chairwoman Susan Bryant called it "shameful, absolutely shameful." Two members of District 8 Board Advisory Council — Beth Shugg and Julea Danielson — resigned last week in protest of the firing.

But the leadership of the state NAACP, in a Wednesday press release, said they "commend the Wake County Board of Education for the poise and grace with which they handled the difficult issues raised by Brig. Gen. Anthony Tata's performance as Superintendent of the Wake County Public School System."

A Wake County Superior Court judge went further than expected today and yanked the charter allowing the N.C. Virtual Academy to open in August.

Sarah Ovaska, who has been covering the issue for the liberal N.C. Policy Watch, tweeted that Judge Abe Jones overturned an administrative law judge's ruling that granted the charter for what would have been the state's first online charter school. Jones has ruled that the state Board of Education's decision to not review the school's application was in effect a denial.

Based on statements that Jones had made at Monday's hearing, the thought was that the judge might refer the school's application back to the state board for further review.

The decision will be cheered by the 89 school boards, including Wake County, that joined the N.C. School Boards Association in joining the litigation against the charter school.

UPDATE

Click here to view a copy of today's ruling posted by N.C. Policy Watch.

Click here to view Satuday's N&O article by Anne Blythe. In the article, Bill Harrison, the state board fo education chairman, says now it might not be until 2014 before they're in a position to allow a virtual charter school to open.