So how good is the Wake County school system?

That's the focus of the package in today's paper, which looks at how Wake fares against some other districts it's long compared itself with. Some maintain that Wake is one of the best districts in the nation while others say that's an over the top statement.

"Wake is one of the best school systems in the nation," said Yevonne Brannon, chairwoman of the Great Schools in Wake Coalition. "We had a few hiccups a few years ago but we’re on the way back. We’ve got a strong school board and a very capable staff."

Wake County could be in line for a massive expansion in the number of charter schools.

In a blog post Tuesday, Terry Stoops, director of education studies for the the conservative John Locke Foundation, writes that 14 groups have filed letters of intent with the state Department of Public Instruction to open charter schools in Wake County for the 2014-15 school year.

The Wake contingent is among a group of 161 applicants who filed letters of intent. Stoops writes that 33 applicants are from Mecklenburg County.

UPDATE/CORRECTION

The state says there were 154 letters, not the 161 reported by Stoops. Click here to download a spreadsheet with all the applicants.

Bloggers for the conservative John Locke Foundation are criticizing Wake County school board member Susan Evans for yanking the microphone out of board member Deborah Prickett's hands last night.

In a post this morning on the Right Angles blog, Donna Martinez quips that Evans has replaced Debra Goldman as "the board member to watch." Martinez writes that "when Evans didn’t like what fellow board member Deborah Prickett had to say at the  public hearing about student assignment, Evans reacted like a 10-year-old who hadn’t gotten her way on the playground."

"Ah yes, the enlightened Left’s example is fascinating: When you don’t agree with someone, just shut them down," Martinez writes.

In a post this morning for The Locker Room blog, Terry Stoops headlines it "so much for open-mindedness, respect." Stoops contrasts Evans' actions Wednesday with an N&O editorial from September saying that Evans had pledged "to operate in an open-minded, respectful manner."

Terry Stoops is saying that his sources tell him that "former Wake County superintendent Tony Tata will not be appointed chairman of the State Board of Education."

It's part of a column today from Stoops, director of education studies for the conservative John Locke Foundation, in which he makes predictions about education changes to come in North Carolina now that Republicans hold the governor's mansion and the General Assembly.

Other predictions include expanding career and technical education, the director of the Division of Non-Public Education "is the most important education appointment that nobody is talking about" and "Pat McCrory will become a Jeb Bush/Bobby Jindal/Mitch Daniels-type education reformer."

Terry Stoops is saying that nobody should be surprised that the Democratic majority on the Wake County school board fired Superintendent Tony Tata because, despite their protestations otherwise, they're politicians.

In his weekly CommenTerry out today, Stoops, director of education studies for the conservative John Locke Foundation, writes that "let's get it out of our heads that school boards magically transcend partisanship and politics just because there are children involved."

Stoops writes that it's natural for the board majority to want a superintendent who will carry out their plans. He writes that Tata was an "idealist" who refused the board majority's request "to assimilate for the sake of his job. and, more importantly their political future."

"In sum, the school board majority will choose a ho-hum left-leaning career school administrator in the familiar McNeil/Burns mold," Stoops writes.

Will Wake County's school bus problems spill over into this fall's race for North Carolina superintendent of public schools?

In a blog post Thursday, Terry Stoops of the conservative John Locke Foundation notes that State Schools Superintendent June Atkinson congratulated Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) for getting “100,000+” children “to school on time." Stoops says Atkinson did not congratulate any other school district for their successful transportation efforts at Thursday's State Board of Education meeting.

Atkinson, a Democrat, is running against Wake County school board member John Tedesco, a Republican. "Was Atkinson’s unusual remark an implicit criticism of Tedesco?" Stoops writes.

Wake hasn't done some of the things that Charlotte has done in recent years to cut costs. Charlotte reduced the number of bus stops by increasing the distance between them and requires magnet school students who live more than five miles from the school to take an express bus.

Is it a conspiracy or coincidence that the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights is spending a lot of its time investigating various complaints filed against the Wake County school system?

As noted in today's article, OCR has used its discretion to launch investigations of three complaints against Wake in the past two years. The scope of the investigations means OCR is looking at how students are assigned, how they’re suspended, what athletics opportunities they’re provided and whether they’re getting important notices in Spanish.

Depending on your point of view, they're welcome probes or a case of the feds butting in too much into Wake County's business.

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.

Terry Stoops had done a quick analysis of Wake County student performance data that "suggest that attending schools with low FRL(free-and-reduced lunch) percentages is no guarantee of success and enrollment in schools with high FRL percentages is no guarantee of failure."

In a blog post Friday, Stoops, the director of education studies for the conservative John Locke Foundation, writes he decided to take a look at how low-income students were doing in Wake County. He used documents Wake compiled for the magnet review.

Stoops looked at the five elementary schools with the highest and lowest concentration of low-income students and the performance of FRL students at those schools on state End-of-Grade tests. 

Terry Stoops is telling a national audience that the Wake County school system's former socioeconomic diversity policy was a "failure" and "that school districts cannot bus their way to success."

In an online piece posted Sunday by The New York Times, Stoops, director of education studies for the conservative John Locke Foundation, compares what happened after Wake adopted the socioeconomic diversity and Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools abandoned busing for diversity.

Stoops points to how "the performance of disadvantaged students in Wake County has stalled." In contrast, he notes that Charlotte's low-income students "outperformed their Wake County peers on most measures of student achievement."