Vitally important dispatches from Save CMS Kids detail where the consultants are steering the process — and hence the conclusion.

One key observation about how the task force’s consultants are manipulating the process:

They also said there was no debate for the bond issue. They said there was a crisis so we should just pay up. I really wanted to know how much they were going to kick in. They’re the experts. So we pork barrel the bonds to pass them. Did they know off the top of their head how much all that pork is going to increase the tax rate? That the additional Money spent on title 1 schools should be spent on teachers, not squandered on more under-utilized buildings? That didn’t need a study. Those consultants are just that good.

Once again, right in the middle of a supposed investigation into what ails CMS, we are confronted with the unassailable assumption that more money will fix things. Despite all we know about CMS’ questionable fiscal priorities, that topic is completely off the table, as is deconsolidation of system.

What we are left with are interesting ideas — more power to principals and teachers, for example — that will forever be seen as secondary to the quest for more money. In other words, the Task Force is turning into what it looked to be from the very beginning — a stalking horse for higher taxes (in the form of the November bond package) and the imposition of impact fees in Mecklenburg County.