Bob Geary on whether school board elections will fill a "huge hole" in student assignment plan

Bob Geary is pitching today's Wake County school board elections as "a question of whether Wake will blunder into a set of high-poverty, low-achieving schools ... or avoid that fate."

In an online post today for the liberal Independent weekly, Geary writes that there's a "huge hole" in the new student assignment plan when it comes to promoting equity/diversity. The problem, Geary writes, is that the student achievement pillar is too weak to prevent the creation of high-poverty and low-achieving schools.

"If the Republicans hold or expand their 5-4 majority in today's elections, Tata's plan will continue to have a hole in it, because Republican School Board Chair Ron Margiotta & Co. want that hole to remain," Geary writes.

If, however, Margiotta falls in the District 8 race against challenger Susan Evans, and if that results in a 5-4 majority against the Republicans (meaning that incumbent Kevin Hill survives his challenge in District 3 from Republican Heather Losurdo), then the hole in Tata's plan can be filled by a new board — as Tata, if I understand him correctly, wants it to be filled."