John Tedesco promising "you ain't seen nothing yet"

Wake County school board member John Tedesco's colleagues weren't joking when they repeatedly said he was charged up on caffeine when he gave a fiery speech at last Thursday's Northern Wake Republican Club meeting.

During the speech, Tedesco praised the board majority's actions since December 2009 in "revamping public education." He also ripped into liberals, including what he called their "unholy trinity" of the NAACP, the Great Schools in Wake Coalition and Raleigh FIST.

"They will try and scare people," Tedesco said of the opposition. "People use fear. These are cowards who understand that anger can be power as long as there is a victim on TV. So they will strike fear.

They struck fear. 'Well the new board is anti-teacher. They're going to be against the teachers. Or they're going to be against this particular race or that particular race, or this particular income or this particular class of people or this particular neighborhood.' They're going to continue to work to try and divide us."

But Tedesco said the reality is, unlike the old board, they didn't lay off teachers last year or so far this year. He went on to tout Superintendent Tony Tata's budget, which is based on the state only cutting funding by 5 percent.

Tedesco defended not doing what their "liberal friends on the board" want to do in asking county commissioners for more money even if it raises taxes. As things stand, Tata's budget asks the county for $313.5 million, which would mean no increase for the third year in a row.

"The people of this community couldn't afford that," Tedesco said of a tax increase. "We understood that. And you know what, recessions are part of capitalism. There are ebbs and flows that help teach us how to do things better."

Tedesco said they dealt with a $100 million funding loss by "trimming all administrative fat," drawing large applause from the crowd. (It also helped that Wake has $28 million in federal money to save jobs this year.)

"Several middle managers who were managing something that managed something that managed something, we're talking about, are now gone," Tedesco said.

Tedesco went on to tout savings from renegotiating the cell phone contract, software contract and savings on capital costs. He also pointed to savings that would come if they can sell their administrative buildings as part of the move to Cary.

Tedesco said they're "rempowering families" in student assignment and made it easier for families, especially low-income ones, to get into magnet schools by eliminating the diversity component in the selection criteria.

He also touted the Renaissance schools and the Green Hope High and Knightdale High AP partnership.

"This is a board that's aggressively moving forward in the right direction  so I want to thank them," Tedesco said. "But I want to tell you something. You ain't seen nothing yet."

Tedesco praised the hiring of Tata as superintendent in the face of "critics on the opposite side of the aisle who said 'Well, great the guy  can shoot and kill but can he teach." That's a shot at remarks made by school board member Carolyn Morrison at the time of the hiring.

Tedesco said Tata has to lead the school system, not be a substitute teacher.

Tedesco also addressed this fall's school board elections.

"We need your help," Tedesco told the crowd. "We need to get a strong solid team that's going to be committed to continuing the progress forward in the face of aggressive opposition. They're not stopping. They're only getting started."

Tedesco pointed to the recent fundraiser for Wake school board candidates whose sponsors included Gov. Bev Perdue and other leading Democrats. He called them "liberal cronies." He also singled out State Schools Superintendent June Atkinson's participation at the event, which he called a "conflict of interest."

"[They] all got in on hosting a fundraiser for a single county school district," Tedesco said. "How little they've become. What they need to do is focus on their priorities and do not try and usurp the democratic process that the citizens in Wake County spoke for."

Tedesco said the Washington Post, New York Times, Comedy Central and former Pres. Bill Clinton are going after the board majority "because they know they're making a difference." (He probably meant to say we're instead of they're.)

"If we can show them, with one of the largest school districts in the state, the largest in the state and one of the largest in the nation, what great success conservatives can have in revamping public education, they're done," Tedesco said to applause. "They're done and they know that. You are on the forefront of a national movement that is going to strengthen and reform public education for our children, for our communities. It's needed, it's necessary and it's needed now."

During his closing, he mocked the Wake County Democratic Party's recent "take back our schools" training session and the leadership of the Democrats in the state over the past 120 years.

"They've already started trainings," Tedesco said. "They call it their 'we will train you how to take back our schools.' Are you serious? You had them for 30 years as a county. We finally get it a year-and-a-half and move things in the right direction. Have you lost your minds so much that 'you've got to take them back?'"