Occupy Wake County School Board Meeting October 18

Since when does disagreement on important public issues constitute "corrosive public debate?"  Well, since the Chamber of Commerce decided it did.  Seems the Chamber and businessmen of the Wake Partnership have joined the push to approve the new resegregation plan unless stopped by non-violent civil disobedience on or before Tuesday night. 

From the News Observer:

. . . .But the future of the plan was thrown into uncertainty after Tuesday's election resulted in the victory of four Democratic school board candidates: Evans, Martin, Christine Kushner and incumbent Keith Sutton. A likely runoff Nov. 8 between Democratic incumbent Kevin Hill and Republican challenger Heather Losurdo will determine which side has a majority on the board.

The Democratic school board candidates have raised questions about the assignment plan, including whether it will do enough to prevent the creation of low-performing schools.

Evans, who defeated Republican school board Chairman Ron Margiotta, has said the vote should be delayed until the new board takes office Dec. 6. On that day, Martin will replace Anne McLaurin, who decided not to seek re-election, and Kushner will take over for Carolyn Morrison, who also didn't run.

"It would be insulting to Anne McLaurin, Carolyn Morrison and Ron Margiotta to say you don't get to finish your term, you don't get to finish what you were elected to do, which is to finish their term in early December," Tata said.

. . . .

"We're poised for Tuesday," Tata said. "We've done a lot of hard work. It's time to bring this for a vote."

Tata got some backing from leaders of the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce and the Wake Education Partnership, who also say the vote shouldn't be delayed.

"Delaying a decision at this point would only prolong the corrosive debate and further distract from pressing classroom issues and needed discussions about how to handle future enrollment growth," according to an opinion piece written by Jim Brown, chairman of Wake Education Partnership's board of directors, and Jim Beck, chairman of the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce.

Could there be a more pressing classroom issue than whether or not those very classroom will return to the era of Jim Crow?