Considering how much supporters of the diversity policy made Charlotte-Meckkenburg schools a boogeyman during the school board campaign, the new board members arguably are having the last laugh now.

As noted in today's article, the new 2009 state report cards show that Charlotte's black and low-income students are outperforming their peers in Wake on state EOG and EOC exams.

"We're not saying that Charlotte is the right way, but the fact that they're doing better than us shows how poorly we've been doing," said new school board member John Tedesco in the article.

What do the Wake school board elections, Maine's repeal of the same-sex marriage law and the election of Republican governors in Virginia and New Jersey all have in common?

According to state Rep. Paul Stam, they're a sign "voters are squarely focused on core issues affecting their family and their future more than at any time in recent history." The Apex Republican and House Minority Leader linked all these election happenings in the latest blog post on his web site.

As voters continue to cast their ballots in the District 2 runoff, the state NAACP is sending a message it won't be going away after Election Day.

In a statement sent this afternoon, the Rev. William Barber, the head of the state NAACP, said they don't see the runoff as an "end all." Barber said they'll reviewing the policies of the new school board to see if they lead to resegregation.

School board candidate Cathy Truitt is trying to position herself as being a hero in the minds of opponents of the diversity policy.

As noted in today's article, Truitt said her announcement over the weekend that she'll served if elected was meant to forestall the possibility of the current school board filling the seat if she got the most votes today.

"I'm ensuring they can't appoint a supporter of forced busing," Truitt said.

Can the Leandro case be used to block any attempt to abandon Wake's diversity policy?

As noted in today's article, the state NAACP is citing Leandro and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as possible grounds to stall any changes that would be made by the new school board majority.

"We'll look at the policies that are implemented, then monitor new policies to make sure any changes don't violate the federal or state constitutions," said the Rev. William Barber, head of the state NAACP, in the article.

To say that the NAACP is making a threat to sue just hours before the school board runoff election is a bit of a stretch.

As noted in Saturday's article by Thomas Goldsmith and Kristin Collins, that threat to litigate was made at Friday's NAACP mass meeting at Martin Street Baptist Church.

The Rev. William Barber, head of the state NAACP, drew a standing ovation at Friday's meeting when he brought up the willingness to sue Wake to prevent resegregation.

You can check out tomorrow's paper and the blog for an amplification on Barber's position. For now, you can read this speech he made Friday.

Wake's school board election results have gotten some national attention.

In an article in today's USA Today, it's noted how more school districts are using socioeconomic diversity with Wake as the national model. But the backlash in Wake was also noted as well.

"They take these poor kids who are struggling and do their very best to spread them around and create the appearance of healthy schools," said Joe Ciulla of the Wake Schools Community Alliance, in the article.

The new N.C. School Report Cards are out with 2008-09 school year data.

Since these report cards have been used in the past to compare Wake and Charlotte-Mecklenburg, let's revisit the issue again. Wake gets less money and does better overall than CMS, but CMS does better among several subgroups.

Let's start with test results.

CORRECTED CMS OVERALL PASSING RATE ON BOTH EOGS. 

Tuesday's discussion about Fox Road Elementary highlights the challenges and limits that the current assignment policy faces in Wake.

For those who don't want to read the whole post, I'll run off some of the main points from Tuesday's facilities committee meeting. Staff is reviewing the draw areas for magnet and year-round schools, which could affect where current and future application students will go.

For diversity reasons, some magnet schools were deliberately left with empty seats this school year. For diversity reasons, an effort to encourage more low-income students to apply for year-round schools may have backfired, at least at Fox Road Elementary.

School board member Keith Sutton wasn't happy last week at the apparent lack of diversity among the latest winners of the district's Employee Excellence awards.

Once a month, the school district honors employees, who've been nominated by their colleagues, at a school board meeting. Last week, 13 employees were recognized.

It was the first such ceremony for Sutton, who joined the board in August. After the ceremony ended and the employees left the room, Sutton said the winners did not appear to be a very diverse group.