Critics of the new Wake County school board majority are again hammering the connection between board members and conservative businessman Art Pope.

A group of N.C. students sent out a press release today announcing plans to protest tonight's on-campus speech that's organized by a group funded by the John W. Pope Foundation. According to the press release "protesters will voice their concerns about the role this ideological foundation has played at their University and as a force behind the new Wake County School Board majority."

"How much influence have [Pope']s dollars had on my education, and how much money are he and his buddies spending to install misguided puppets who are set on dismantling Wake County's nationally recognized diversity policy and sending us back to the Jim Crow segregated South?" said Vidya Shankar, an NC State undergrad, in the press release.