Party of "Small Government" in Raleigh Intrudes Even More Fiercely Into Local Government

The Republicans in the NC General Assembly hate the Democrats on the Wake County School Board, and the Republicans in the NC General Assembly intend to get rid of them the same way they got themselves into what looks like perpetual power in Raleigh ... by gerrymandering school districts and by "double-bunking" their least-favorite sitting school board members, including at least one Republican who sometimes votes with the Democrats.

Ruthless power that knows no limits. If there is a god, there'll be a day of reckoning for these assholes.

Power Doesn't Get More Naked Than This: GOP Wants to Get Rid of Democratic School Board in Wake County by Shortening Terms and Redistricting

Well, redistricting worked for the North Carolina General Assembly. Why not also for the Wake County School Board, which the new Republican majority in the General Assembly hates with a passion.

In 2011, the Wake County School Board elections returned control to the Democrats, which has become a huge bone caught in the throats of Republican lawmakers. Then the Wake County School Board fired the militaristic Superintendent Tony Tata, who was in turn promptly hired by Governor McCrory to run the Department of Transportation.

But that wasn't revenge enough for a bunch of radicals whose pulse quickens at the thought of payback.

Senate Bill 325 was introduced on March 13th to simply nullify the Wake County school board elections of 2011. How?

1. The bill would put all nine school board seats on the ballot in 2014 (rather than this year), thus lengthening the terms of Republicans Bill Fletcher, Deborah Prickett and John Tedesco and Democrat Tom Benton. It would shorten the terms of the five other Democrats on the board – Susan Evans, Kevin Hill, Christine Kushner, Jim Martin and Keith Sutton.

2. The bill would redraw the school board districts to suit the Republican radicals in the General Assembly; that is to say, three current Democratic members of the board are drawn into the same district.

Hey, if redistricting worked so well for guaranteeing Republican domination of the General Assembly, why won't it work well for the Wake County School Board too?

On top of this towering pile of arrogance, now find the pea-brained crowing of one John Tedesco, a Republican member of the Wake County School Board whose term of service would otherwise be ending this year and who ran unsuccessfully for state Superintendent of Public Instruction last year to dismal effect. He couldn't stop himself from strutting in an email, bragging that the pay-back for his fellow (Democratic) School Board members is only just getting underway.

We don't doubt it for a minute.

All That Glitters Is Not Gold(man)

Debra Goldman is a Tea Party member of the Wake County School Board, and she wants to move up this November to become the state's Auditor, a member of the Council of State. She's clearly unstable, based on details in this leaked police report.

Chris Malone is another Tea Party member of the Wake County School Board who got himself involved romantically with Debra Goldman (see the link above). Chris Malone also wants to move up politically. He's currently running for a seat in the NC House. But he's an idiot for getting himself so wrapped up in the drama of Debra Goldman.

Just the sort of people we need serving the public in North Carolina.

Wake County Schools Fires Its Superintendent

Remember this guy?

He ain't there no more.

Fired this afternoon by the new majority on the Wake County School Board.

Not a Good Night for Republicans

With Kevin Hill's run-off win for the Wake County School Board last night, the brief but highly inflammatory regime of the Republican re-segregationists is over.

Voters in Ohio slammed shut the door on Republican anti-unionism. Republican Governor John Kasich's butt happened to be in the door at the time. Haven't checked elsewhere in the Buckeye State, but in Cincinnatti voters ousted four incumbent Republicans from Cincinnati City Council, choosing instead seven Democrats, a majority of African-Americans, and the first openly gay candidate.

Defying all expectations, Mississippi turned out last night to be resoundingly godless on the issue of abortion, rejecting the notorious "personhood" amendment to the state's constitution. (A pro-amendment preacher was heard to say, "Satan wins!") The anti-abortion crowd is undeterred, however, vowing that they will introduce new legislation that will establish that an egg is a chicken, an acorn is an oak, and a silk worm is a komono. (And incidentally, Mississippi, I apologize for all the assumptions I was making about you yesterday. A woman at last night's celebration for victorious Boone Town Council candidates Andy Ball, Lynne Mason, and Allen Scherlen, said to me -- long before Mississippi's results were known -- that the women in Mississippi weren't as stupid as their husbands thought they were.)

Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx whomped his Republican opponent badly, and Democrats swept the four city council at-large seats. Just saw a tweet from Marcus Brandon that Democrats "cleaned house" in Greensboro, though Ed Cone takes a decidedly more measured tone about the outcome.

Over in Kentucky, where we have a lot of friends, Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear handily defeated his Republican opponent, while Democratic Attorney General Jack Conway cruised to re-election over an anti-health reform opponent. Democrats also won state-wide races for treasurer, secretary of state, and state auditor.

Attempted voter suppression in Maine didn't fare well. Maine Republicans had eliminated the state’s longstanding practice of same-day voter registration on election day, but the voters said "whoa!" and defeated the law at the polls.

Just a sampling of yesterday's action, grabbed on the fly. Haven't yet found a sour apple in this particular barrel.

Icing on the cake: We have another Republican presidential bitch-slapping in store for tonight!

Control of Wake School Board Hangs on 50 Votes

Although the leader of the Republicans who took control of the Wake County School Board in 2009, Ron Margiotta, was defeated last night, control of the Board hangs on another race between incumbent Democrat Kevin Hill and challenger, Republican Heather Losurdo. Hill came within 50 votes of winning the necessary 50% outright, leading three other candidates. Losurdo has apparently made noise already that she wants a run-off. Whatever. It's highly unlikely she could win it, even with the sacks of money that Art Pope might dump in on her behalf.

The brakes have been applied by the voters to the wholesale dismantling of a model desegregation plan in public education in North Carolina.

Interesting Night

First, the Republican presidential debate in New Hampshire ... free-lance grading of the various performances are flying on Twitter:

RT @LarrySabato: This prof's grades: Romney A, Cain A, Gingrich A-, Santorum A-, Bachmann B+, Paul B, Huntsman C-, Perry D+

Vs. the grading done by FiveThirtyEight:

My debate grades FWIW: Romney B+, Cain B, Huntsman B-, Gingrich B-, Bachmann C+, Paul C+, Santorum C, Perry C

FWIW indeed.

Meanwhile, in Wake County, 'pears that Republican/Tea Party forces were beaten back, particularly with the loss of Ron Margiotta, chair of the Wake School Board who had been the leader for dismantling "diversity." Ouch.

We'll do a recap of municipal elections tomorrow, when we can see straight.

Has the Worm Turned?

And here we were thinking that "Tea Party" was a proud label worn by politicians like Virginia Foxx as certifiable evidence that they were patriots bent on saving America.

But in Wake County right now, in the heat of a new Wake County School Board race, "Tea Party" constitutes fighting words.

Just because Republican candidates for the Board spoke at Tea Party rallies, and just because they've benefited from electioneering by Americans for Prosperity and Art Pope, nationally recognized funders of the Tea Party, and just because they've been attending to the agenda of resegregating Raleigh's schools ... why, hell's bells! That doesn't make them, gulp, Tea Partiers.

Now, THAT'S Educational!

General (and don't you forgit, boy!) Tony Tata, Superintendent of the Wake County Public School System, is attending a Republican campaign event in Raleigh alongside Republican mayoral and Republican school board candidates.

Well, hell! He was hired by the Republican majority on the Wake School Board, so who would have supposed he might stay aloof from politics, anyway? Plus he obviously needs to help in any way possible to keep the anti-diversity Republicans in power in Wake County. A $250,000 annual salary is a terrible thing to waste!

But how high would Tea Partiers leap if a Watauga County Superintendent became a featured speaker at a partisan Democratic event?

The Billionaires and Wake Co. Schools

Important investigation of the intertwined activities of the notorious Koch brothers and Art Pope, Dark Overlord of North Carolina, and their deep involvement (mega $$, inspiration, and organizational support) in taking over the Wake County School Board in 2009.

They will do as much, and probably much much more, to hang on to that school board in this fall's elections. Believe it.

Not to mention next year's general elections. Art Pope owns the NC General Assembly, and most especially Sen. Dan Soucek and Rep. Jonathan Jordan, and he certainly intends to protect his sizable investment.

When you get a good milk cow, you don't give 'er up as long as she's making milk!

Colbert Mocks Wake School Board While Kissell, Shuler Mock Kissell, Shuler

Stephen Colbert used the Wake County Board of Education as the main object lesson in a segment on The Colbert Report last night -- "The Word -- Disintegration." And the N&O duly covered it.

And Dem Reps Larry Kissell and Heath Shuler announced that they would not vote to repeal the Affordable Health Care Act today, despite the fact that they both voted against it originally. "Back then we were dorks," they said. "Now we're not dorks." The N&O duly covered it.

Heightened Interest in Lowered Expectations

Long article in this a.m.'s WashPost profiling the attempt by the new Republican-dominated school board in Wake County to end the decades-long "diversity" policy that mixed income groups in all schools.

One might have expected some D.C. interest in Wake County because of the hiring of Anthony J. Tata, former chief operating officer of the D.C. schools, as the new Wake Superintendent. But we learn nothing from this article about Tata's tenure or reputation in D.C.

We do get word, however, direct from The Czar of All North Carolina, Art Pope, who actually granted an interview to the WashPost. He acknowledges that the new student assignment program proposed by his guys on the school board will create inner-city schools with great concentrations of poor minority students. Pope generously allows as how that might actually be a good thing: knowing where all the poor kids are will make it easier for his other puppets in government to dedicate more money to them (yeah, right!) -- not to mention that such concentrations of black & brown poverty far from the watered lawns of suburbia will make many an affluent parent rest more comfortably.

One School System at a Time

What would you say to a liberal think tank conducting a "training" session on budget priorities for School Board members and getting the school system itself to sponsor the "training" on school property and furthermore qualify the "training" to count as four credit hours toward the professional training requirements that school board members in the state of North Carolina are required to complete? And -- oh yeah -- what would you say to that liberal think tank charging the school board members for the "training"?

Sound okay to you?

Flip the "liberal" to conservative, and that's exactly what's going on in Winston-Salem with the Forsyth County School Board. The conservative think tank that has engineered this swell little plan is none other than Art Pope's Civitas Institute.

Art Pope was the power/money behind the takeover of the Wake County School Board in 2009, and that entire city has been in an uproar ever since ... especially with the recent hiring of a pulp-novel-writing ex-general with very little educational experience as the new Superintendent, he whose greatest qualification for the job may be that he thinks Sarah Palin is a genius. Plus in his spare time in 2010, Mr. Pope also took charge of the NC General Assembly. It just came out today that the Republican leadership team in the NC House is busy kissing the Pope's ring by hiring his underlings to run the joint.

"The Good Government State," Art Pope style.

Happy New Year, Wake County Schools!

News hit this a.m. that the embattled Wake County school district has a new superintendent, former Brigadier General Anthony J. Tata. His hiring was apparently conducted under a cloak of secrecy by the 5-member Republican majority. The special meeting called yesterday to finalize the hiring was sprung on the Democratic minority with 48 hours notice.

Tata's background in education policy and performance seems thin. During the last phase of his time as a general with the military, he spent some time at the Broad Superintendents Academy, a Los Angeles nonprofit institute that trains former generals, CEOs, and others to lead large school systems. With that training under his belt, Tata joined the District of Columbia for an 18-month stint as an operations officer in charge of procurement and other mainly non-academic responsibilities.

A letter-writer in the N&O this a.m. suggested that if an ex-general can be trained to be a school administrator after only 10 months of "instruction," then perhaps ex-school teachers can be trained as generals in a similar period.

Tata's outspoken conservative political views might appear to be his chief attractions for the Republicans on the Wake County Board. Tata has appeared frequently on Fox News, writes political thrillers, and recently said of Sarah Palin after reading her book,

"The recurrent thought in my mind was that this woman is far more qualified to be president of the United States than the current occupant of the White House."

Whatever, Dude. If everything's going to hell, might as well take the rocket toboggan as the stairs.

Stealth

When does a Republican not run as a Republican? When the office sought is on the Wake County School Board. The admission that Deborah Prickett changed her party affiliation from Republican to Unaffiliated in order to run (successfully) for the Board of Education in Raleigh, because she thought that being Republican might hurt her chances, brings up an obvious question:

Why would voters conceivably think twice about electing a Republican, any Republican, to a school board, any school board?

Might it be that Republicans (especially in the South, bless its heart) don't really believe in public education and have extolled the virtues of being rich enough to afford private schools, or being brilliant enough to home-school your own youngins?

Or might it be that Republicans (esp. in South, yadda yadda), even when they believe that public education is okay, are a trifle concerned about the complexion of the kid sitting next to their own lily white offspring?

Or might it be that Republicans seem awfully willing to throw science out of the curriculum in favor of Creationism and to do what they can to prepare students in public schools for life in, say, the 12th Century rather than the 21st?

Whatever, now that Deborah Prickett is firmly installed on the Wake County Board of Education, she's gotten all brave and stuff and declared that she's actually a Republican and damn proud of it! Which only helps explain the severe right turn that educational policies have recently made in Wake County.

How the Republicans Play in Wake County

The Republican take-over of the Wake County school board has already been chronicled.

Now add the Wake County Commission, where one Democrat is sick (and hence absent) from the 4-3 Democratic majority, and another commissioner had to go to the bathroom, so in her absence down the hall in the crapper (so to speak) the Republican commissioners elected one of their own as chair.

Maybe you'd better read about it for yourself. Wasn't this the plot of a bad Dick Van Dyke comedy in 1967?

Wake County School Board ... The Sound, The Fury, and The Dyspepsia

The new conservative majority on the Wake County School Board took control yesterday, and they seized the moment to install themselves in power, to spring new agenda items on the board's minority without prior warning, and to end the hated "diversity" policies of the previous majority. It was a tumultuous meeting. Citizens yelled at them. Teachers walked out. And ... oh, yeah ... one of the new board members regaled the crowd with a Bible reading.

We don't pretend to know all the background on the issues (Keung Hui of the N&O has a barebones recap of the major actions taken yesterday), but the crowing of the John Locke Foundation crowd tells us a great deal about this particular regression in educational policy.

FOOTNOTE
Andrea Verykoukis at The Progressive Pulse points out that the new majority arrived for their swearing in with an agenda they'd obviously worked out and agreed on beforehand and asks if that could possibly be legal. They did, and it was legal, and if I were in their position I would have done the same thing, though perhaps with less jackbooting. If the new right-wing majority is going to operate in this arrogant manner, however, I would expect them to remain in the majority no longer than the next election.