Has the new Wake County student assignment plan discouraged businesses from coming to the area?

As noted in today's article by Thomas Goldsmith, Raleigh Mayor Nancy McFarlane caused a stir when she raised the issue during the joint meeting of the Wake County Mayors Association and the school board. McFarlane said she is starting to hear that some businesses have second thoughts about coming here.

Harvey Schmitt, president of the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce and a backer of the new choice plan, said he was not aware of any company that has chosen not to relocate to Raleigh because of the school system. Schmitt said that McFarlane was, understandably, reacting to anxiety expressed by constituents in pockets of town where schools are in high demand and overcrowded.

Should Wake County Superintendent Tony Tata have questioned new school board members Susan Evans and Christine Kushner about their ties to the Great Schools in Wake Coalition?

As noted in today's article, Tata emailed both board members on Saturday questioning whether they were involved in Great School's Friday press release on the bell schedule changes and the new assignment plan. Tata repeatedly questioned their affiliation with a group that's been critical of him and staff.

In their response, Evans and Kushner denied any current involvement with Great Schools or the press release. They also accused Tata of making a public attack on them because the email message is a public record.

(The text of the email messages is later on in the post.)

The Great Schools in Wake Coalition, which is the darling of area liberal groups, is getting another award tonight.

WakeUP Wake County is giving GSIW one of its 2011 Volunteer of the Year awards at tonight's annual meeting. Great Schools was formed by WakeUP Wake.

WakeUP Wake has been cheering about last fall's election takeover by the new Democratic school board majority. The group has taken credit for the change.

Who will the Democratic majority on the Wake County school board side with on the new student assignment plan?

As noted in today's article, different influential groups have taken opposing sides on the plan. Will the Democratic board members side with the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce and the Wake Education Partnership who want the plan to be implemented for this fall?

Or will the new majority side with the Great Schools in Wake Coalition's call for the plan to be delayed a year?

WakeUP Wake County is citing the "success" of electing a new Democratic majority on the Wake County school board as one reason to give money to the organization.

In an e-mail message sent today, Yevonne Brannon, chairwoman of the board of directors for WakeUP Wake, writes that "success in 2011 has been real." She continues by writing that "Wake County elected a new majority for the Board of Education, which means a better managed school system supporting all our children as Wake grows."

"WakeUP played a vital role in this progress through public education and advocacy," Brannon writes. "We attended school board meetings, wrote letters-to-the-editor, held community issue forums and non-partisan candidate forums, talked to elected officials, registered voters, communicated in the media, and let you know when you needed to act!"

Yevonne Brannon, chairwoman of the Great Schools in Wake Coalition, was inducted last week into the YWCA of the Greater Triangle's 2011 Class of the Academy of Women.

Brannon was inducted in the government category, which the YWCA says is for civil service or public policy that enhances the quality of life for area residents. The bio from the YWCA says that "Yevonne courageously works for social justice in our community as chair of the WakeUP Wake County organization’s Great Schools in Wake coalition."

"She is considered the foremost spokesperson on the importance of diversity in relation to student assignment," according to the YWCA. "Great Schools in Wake has partnered on numerous initiatives with the YWCA to advocate for the constitutional rights of children across the county so that they, regardless of income, race, ethnicity, or residence, have the highest quality education possible. She has developed many of her closest friendships through her advocacy work."

Is Planned Parenthood working behind the scenes to help elect the Democratic candidates for Wake County school board?

That's the implication of this post published last week by the Civitas Review, the weblog of the conservative Civitas Institute. The blog was looking into wakeelections.com, a website listed on mailers sent to voters in District 3 and 8 by Common Cause and an arm of the AFL-CIO.

After not finding any information on the website about who's involved in the group, Civitas clicked on the Take Action button. Civitas says the contacts for an automatic message when you sign up to volunteer include WakeUP Wake County, Blueprint NC and Planned Parenthood Health Systems.

If you haven't yet done so, you can watch the recent Wake County school board candidate forums that were sponsored by WakeUP Wake County and the League of Women Voters of Wake County.

The N.C. Center for Voter Education recorded the candidate forums and have posted them online. The one exception is District 4, where Venita Peyton's boycott of the forum meant only Keith Sutton was in attendance.

Click here to view the District 3 forum. Click here to view the District 5 forum. Click here to view the District 6 forum. Click here to view the District 8 forum.

Wake County school board chairman Ron Margiotta will go head-to-head with Susan Evans at tonight's forum sponsored by WakeUP Wake County and the League of Women Voters of Wake County.

Both District 8 candidates have agreed to attend the forum that starts at 7 p.m. at the Cary C. Jones Community Building, 309 Holleman Street in Apex. Tonight's forum should be lively considering the two candidates involved.

It's time for the Wake County school board candidates in District 5 to go head-to-head tonight.

Jim Martin and Cynthia Matson have both agreed to attend the forum, which is sponsored by WakeUP Wake County and the League of Women Voters of Wake County. Organizers said Matson told them she may be running late tonight.

The forum is scheduled to start at 7 p.m. at Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Raleigh, 3313 Wade Avenue, Raleigh. It's an interesting choice considering how Unitarian Universalist Fellowship has been active in supporting the old diversity policy.

There was grumbling about last week's forum being held at Church of the Nativity, located on the edges of District 3's boundaries. Organizers said it's hard finding a place that has the space and is willing to let them use it for a reasonable fee.