Rev. Mike points out that CMS’ supposed “one year” mistake with enrollment numbers — missing the actual number of new students by 40 percent — is not that.

And although I respect UNCC political scientist Ted Arrington a great deal, I think he is flat wrong about how a bond gets passed in Mecklenburg County. It is not, as Arrington suggests, a matter of making sure that every pocket of the county gets “their” projects. We tried that in 2005, South Meck in particular was slated to get 60 percent of the bond and still voted against it.

The overall package has to be appear balanced and fair, yes, but there must be trust that the CMS leadership will spend dollars wisely, both on construction and on instruction. This has been the crucial breakdown.

As we’ve noted, moves by Peter Gorman have not completely addressed this –particularly by starting down the path of ordering the best teachers into the worst schools without having fixed the system’s rampant discipline issues.