Bill James calls Del Burns' resignation "a major victory"

Mecklenburg County Commissioner Bill James is weighing in on Del Burns' resignation as Wake County schools superintendent.

In an e-mail message today, the conservative Republican calls the resignation "the best thing for the GOP majority and for Wake Parents/students." He says Wake needs to use a national search to bring in a person "strong enough to stare down the rabid rabble that attempt to scream down the new majority."

"The Sup’s decision to quit hands a major victory to the new majority as long as they do not lose their nerve," James writes.

James has commented more than a few times on the Wake school board changes.

Here's his e-mail message:

The sup quitting is the best thing for the GOP majority and for Wake Parents/students.

Now they can find someone who can implement their policies to remove ‘diversity’ from the ‘inside’.

The key is to find someone through a national search who is committed to neighborhood schools and is strong enough to stare down the rabid rabble that attempt to scream down the new majority. There are groups that support neighborhood schools that can assist with that search nationally. Part of the criteria is that a full commitment to assigning students to a school close to home as the primary assignment goal (above all others).

In Charlotte, we went from a 4 prong diversity assignment to one where ‘proximity’ was defined as the most important. While CMS still manipulated this process, Wake has a rare opportunity to insure that the folks actually working for the district have the same views as the majority (which is no different than the prior board’s pro-diversity views matching that of the now retiring sup and his acolytes).

This is a huge opportunity for the policies that the majority ran and won on to continue beyond just this election or the next but last for a generation.

While the board can set policy (and has), the Sup can go through the ranks and insure that the ones working to implement policy actually believe in neighborhood schools and aren’t trying to undermine it from inside. In short, a new Sup can identify those that are trying to slow progress to a crawl and remove them; something that the board can’t really do.

The Sup’s decision to quit hands a major victory to the new majority as long as they do not lose their nerve.