Wake County school board member John Tedesco is called "statesmanlike" in this week's issue of the liberal Independent weekly.

This article by Bob Geary notes Tedesco's willingness to reach out to the Democratic school board members for compromises on issues such as student assignment. Geary also writes that "around here, Tedesco is viewed as a conservative ideologue," but he's being called too moderate by his opponent for the Republican nomination for state schools superintendent.

"While Tedesco is poison for many Democrats, he's also the only Republican school board member who regularly communicates with any of the five Democrats who now constitute the new board majority, after two years of Republican control," Geary writes.

Will the Wake County school board join a group of school systems from across the state in urging that a virtual charter school not be allowed to open this year?

The N.C. School Boards Association has gotten at least 35 school districts to pass resolutions joining in the litigation opposing the new N.C. Virtual Academy. Now the Wake County school board is scheduled to vote on the issue today.

Normally, new charter schools get approval by going to the state Board of Education. But N.C. Learns Inc. instead got preliminary approval from the Cabarrus school board in January to open the proposed K-12 school that could eventually educate more than 6,500 students across the state.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST  FOR LINK TO TERRY STOOPS POST

Also, corrected to say that Goldman is not facing a runoff for auditor. Her opponent did not request a runoff.

Rob Schofield is slamming Wake County Superintendent Tony Tata for questioning school board members Susan Evans and Christine Kushner about their ties to the Great Schools in Wake Coalition.

In a blog post today, Schofield of the liberal N.C. Policy Watch writes that "Tata is little more than a puppet voice for the same forces that owned and manipulated the former “gang of five." He calls Tata's latest actions a "dishonest and politically-calculated assault. He praises Great Schools as a "heroic citizens group" that is "made up almost of exclusively of concerned moms."

Schofield, who has been a frequent critic of Tata, contends that raising concerns that Evans and Kushner are kowtowing to a special-interest group are "an outrageous set of lies." He points to the various groups that current and former Republican school board members have been involved with.

"The bottom line: Absent some kind of sincere apology, Tata has irreparably compromised his ability to lead the Wake County schools in an honest and productive way," Schofield writes.

The liberal/progressive Great Schools in Wake Coalition is being praised for helping oust the Republican majority on the Wake County school board.

In this week's issue of the liberal Independent Weekly, GSIW received one of the publication's 2012 Citizen Awards. The article cites Great Schools' various efforts over the past two years such as its white papers, community forums and having members speak at school board meetings.

"When the 2011 elections in Wake County resulted in a stunning defeat for the Republicans, with all five school board seats on the ballot won by pro-diversity candidates, GSIW was the major factor in the outcome," according to the article by Bob Geary.

The liberal N.C. Policy Watch is accusing conservatives of giving John Tedesco a do-nothing job so that he can pay his bills while serving on the Wake County school board.

In a Progressive Pulse blog post today, Rob Schofield marks the sixth anniversary of when it was announced that Tedesco would be president and CEO of the newly formed N.C. Center for Education Reform. Schofield contends that the group, which Tedesco has said is still getting set up, has done nothing.

"And here are the words that most accurately convey the evident substantive output of the group that employs Tedesco at $6,000 per month (at least from a pretty thorough review of the group’s website): Zilch. Nada. Bupkis," Schofield writes.

Despite what you might be hearing, the Wake County school system hasn't gotten permission from the federal government to resume using school lunch data to promote socioeconomically diverse student assignments.

The liberal N.C. Policy Watch reported Tuesday that the U.S. Department of Education had "issued a regulation permitting schools to use to information about children’s eligibility for the Free and Reduced Lunch Program as a means of determining students’ socioeconomic status for school assignment purposes."

The group wrote that the "DOE regulation expressly negates" a February e-mail from a U.S. Department of Agriculture official telling Wake that its prior use of the school lunch data violated student privacy laws.

Here's more signs that life for Wake County Superintendent Tony Tata will be bumpier under the new Democratic school board majority.

In a post today on the liberal Schools Matter blog, Jim Horn points to Cash Michaels' article in The Carolinian about the crowding at Walnut Creek Elementary. Horn essentially calls for the new majority to get rid of Tata.

"We must wonder if the new sane school board majority will allow the incompetent and callous Tata to continue demolishing the reputation of Wake County Schools," Horn writes.

UPDATE

Click here to view the precis for the Walnut Creek capping vote, which includes eight schools the school board could choose from to send the overflow students to for the rest of the school year.

A new conservative Civitas Action robocall designed to hurt Wake County school board member Kevin Hill in the runoff election is drawing complaints from the liberal N.C. Policy Watch.

In this Tuesday robocall, Civitas Action charges "liberal Kevin Hill voted to return to the days of constant reassignment and bureaucrats deciding what school your children attend" when he voted against the student assignment plan.

In a blog post today for N.C. Policy Watch, Rob Schofield charges it's a "scurrilous and inaccurate call."

Rob Schofield is joining in on the cheering from liberal critics over Wake County school board chairman Ron Margiotta's election defeat.

In a blog post tonight for the liberal N.C. Policy Watch, Schofield writes that "thousands of Wake County voters sent a strong message Tuesday night by dismissing the principal architect of a two-year effort to dismantle the county’s much-acclaimed school integration program."

Tonight's turnout was about 21 percent of the eligible voters in the five districts. Schofield writes that "though voter turnout was light, it was nearly double that of two years ago when ideological conservatives swept several school board seats."

Rob Schofield doesn't appear to be optimistic that the majority will change  on the Wake County school board or that the new student assignment plan will do much for diversity.

In a blog post today, Schofield of the liberal N.C. Policy Watch says that the districts on the ballot Tuesday means there's a "small" chance "to dislodge the current right-wing school board majority." He says "the anti-diversity forces" have come up with an assignment plan that's so complicated that "an average person has very little chance of fully grasping the new plan — much less explaining it to others."

He praises Neil Riemann for his analysis of the plan on his blog. Riemann contends "the plan will further polarize our schools by race, wealth, and achievement.”

"In other words, it’s hard to follow and frequently secretive, but the bottom line on what the Wake school board majority has been doing is this: The group is slowly dismantling a once-excellent school system one cut at a time," Schofield writes. "If voters do take the extraordinary step of turning out the right-wingers like Board Chair Ron Margiotta, it will be because they decide they’ve had enough of such an approach."