Critics of the Wake County school board majority were repeatedly hitting on the charge this week that conservative businessmen Art Pope and Bob Luddy are directing the action from behind the scenes.

In a blog post Thursday, Rob Schofield of the liberal N.C. Policy Watch penned his song about the school board majority based on Tennessee Ernie Ford's "Sixteen Tons." He closed out his version with "they owe their souls to Luddy and Pope."

Robert Grant started an online petition this week that, among other things, arguess the Wake Schools Community Alliance and Wake CARES "are not the so-called 'parents' advocacy groups' they claim to be, but rather right-wing astroturf organizations funded by Art Pope that do NOT reflect the beliefs of the majority of parents in Wake County."

The Great Schools in Wake Coalition is arguably taking out of context some of the criticisms leveled against the Wake County school system.

In a press release today, GSIW says that private school supporters are calling the school system "unpopular" and a "failure." It says these remarks "appears part of an orchestrated plan to discredit and undermine the award-winning Wake County Public School System."

“The public schools are the crown jewel of our local economy. We should be advocating for them—not condemning them,” said Yevonne Brannon, GSIW Chairwoman in the press release. “It is an insult to the intelligence of our educators and students when we suggest that one of the top school districts in the nation is a failure. If our schools are so bad, then why have they been held up as a national model of success?”

Here are some assorted issues raised in the NC SPIN show on Wake County's school diversity fight.

Was the socioeconomic diversity unpopular with the public, as maintained by John Hood, president of the conservative John Locke Foundation? He pointed to the higher turnout at last fall's elections and the unfavorable poll results from the Democratic-leaning Public Policy Polling and the conservative-leaning Civitas Institute.

"The policy that the Wake County school board adopted a decade ago has never been popular," Hood said. "It has always been unpopular."

State Schools Superintendent June Atkinson is raising her concerns about the Wake County school board majority dropping the socioeconomic diversity.

Atkinson was interviewed by Chris Fitzsimon, executive director of the liberal N.C. Policy Watch, for this weekend's broadcast of "News and Views." According to N.C. Policy Watch's Progressive Pulse blog, Atkinson says it’s essential students experience diversity for themselves, rather than learning to base their opinions on what they see on television.

Words like "evil" and "fluke election" are being bandied about in a trio of items over the past few days by left-wing groups to describe the Wake County school board and the elimination of the diversity policy.

In a post today, the liberal N.C. Social Justice Project writes that "one of the few bright spots to emerge over the Wake County School Board disaster has been the cooperation of so many diverse and previously unrelated groups and individuals."

The group also calls Tuesday's letter by the Rev. William Barber, president of the state NAACP, and the Rev. Nancy Petty, senior pastor of Pullen Memorial Baptist Church, "a wonderful summary of what everyone is so deeply concerned about and why, deep down, it is so evil."

The Rev. Nancy Petty is encouraging others to engage in civil disobedience as she explains why she was willing to be arrested at last week's Wake County school board meeting to oppose the end of the diversity policy.

In an interview Friday in the Raleigh Public Record, Petty, senior pastor of Pullen Memorial Baptist Church, said she chose civil disobedience because her letter writing and lobbying hadn't worked. She said she wouldn't have done anything differently with the protest.

"I practiced civil disobedience in a way that was respectful and with love," Petty said. "I did not holler, scream or resist the consequences of my civil disobedience, so no, there is not anything that I would have changed."

CORRECTED TO SAY RALEIGH PUBLIC RECORD

Chris Fitzsimon is warning that the "resegregation of the schools begins" now that the Wake County school board majority has removed diversity from the student assignment policy.

In a column Thursday, Fitzsimon, executive director of the liberal N.C. Policy Watch, said Tuesday's vote marked the end of the first stage of the board majority's "right-wing" ideological crusade. He said the vote was "the final indication that the members of the Gang of Five are listening more to the anti-public school ideologues who fund them than the community they are supposed to represent.'

"Let's hope the efforts to resist it [resegregation of the schools] are redoubled before permanent damage to students, schools, and the community is done," Fitzsimon writes.

Wake County school board member John Tedesco is being vilified by diversity policy supporters for invoking the Brown v. Board of Education decision on Tuesday to justify going to community schools.

Tedesco drew a comparison with how poor children in Wake couldn't go to their neighborhood school with 9-year-old Linda Brown not being allowed to go to her neighborhood school because she was black. His mention of the Brown case drew boos and shouts of “how dare you” and “shame, shame” from the audience.

"So what we’ve done in this county at some time now, is told many of our children and many of our families even if they live near a school, because their mom and dad doesn’t have enough money in their pocket, they’re not welcome to go to school with their friends and their neighbors," Tedesco said. "And I just don’t find that fair."

This e-mail message definitely was never meant to be read by any members of the Wake County school board majority.

Jeff Shaw, director of communications for the N.C. Justice Center, sent out an e-mail message today to the attorneys in the school board lawsuit detailing the media strategy going forward. He's coordinating the PR efforts for the plaintiffs who sued the school board over alleged violations of the state's Open Public Meetings Law.

The problem is when Shaw hit reply all, the message was sent to all the school board members, including the members of the majority. Shaw said he hadn't realized that the board members were part of the chain for that message.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST

The Greet Schools in Wake Coalition is warning that passage of the revised student assignment policy by the Wake County school board will turn the district into Charlotte.

In a press release today, GSIW focuses on the increase in the number of high poverty schools in Charlotte-Mecklenburg since the district abandoned busing for diversity. The group points to Wake having a higher graduation rate, higher average SAT score and fewer lower performing schools under the state's ABCs standard than compared to CMS.

But is GSIW ignoring areas where CMS outperforms Wake?

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST