Wake County school board vice chairman John Tedesco is accusing Cash Michaels of spreading lies in his new article in The Carolinian newspaper.

In the article, Michaels speculates on what could happen if Heather Losurdo wins the runoff election and Tedesco becomes the new board chairman. Michaels rips into Tedesco for things such as his firing as borough administrator in New Jersey, calling himself a family man, speaking at Tea Party rallies and his public war of words with board member Debra Goldman.

In a letter written today after the story was published, Tedesco tells Michaels "try not to use so many lies with only a sprinkle of truth."

Academic performance went up both in the Wake County school system and public schools statewide this past school year.

New ABCs of Public Education test data released this morning shows that 146 of 158 Wake schools, or 92 percent, met or exceeded state growth standards. That compares to 138 of 155 schools, 89 percent the prior year. (I'm excluding Longview because it has no ABCs status.)

Wake also had 14 Honor Schools or Excellence or Schools of Excellence, meaning schools had passing rates of at least 90 percent and met growth goals. That's up from 12 schools last year.