The quick summary of the message from Thursday night's meeting is that neighborhood schools and political conservatism are bad.

As noted in today's article, the teens of N.C. HEAT argued that neighborhood schools will lead to resegregation and that the Wake County school board majority is controlled by conservative groups. The teens didn't have nice words to say about Steve Noble, chairman of Called2Action, and conservative businessmen Art Pope and Bob Luddy.

Enloe High student Robert Wright said the school board's policy is being set by Called2Action and Pope. He said members of the board majority are "puppets used by conservative organizations."

Although most of the speakers at Tuesday's NAACP press conference represented religious groups, the secular speakers bashed the Wake County school board majority too for eliminating the diversity policy.

Yevonne Brannon, chairwoman of the Great Schools in Wake Coalition, argued that the school board majority hasn't been focused on improving student achievement. Before changing student assignment, she said the board needs to "fix what's broken before you create new problems."

"Before the new board majority changes how our schools are run, how are students are assigned, before they decide where to create more high poverty schools, we challenge them to fix our schools now," Brannon said. "Fix our high poverty schools now. We have plenty. Make sure that every child who needs help at the highest and lowest achievement level gets the attention they need."