The News & Observer reports that singer Clay Aiken calls the challenge to his voter registration a “technical dispute.” Well, yes, issues of compliance with the law are, indeed, “technical.” The Wake County Board of Elections will handle the issue in a hearing this morning.
His registration aside, Clay Aiken should be applauded for caring enough about his hometown public school system to speak out when he could easily leave Raleigh behind. He is rightly concerned about what is happening to school kids who really need help. That’s why I so wish Mr. Aiken would read the SAS report, which outlines “the inequities of opportunity which presently exists for too many WCPPS students when more reliable information is utilized.”
Surely, once Mr. Aiken read the report, he will want to join the new Wake school board in pushing for policy and accountability reforms that ensure all kids, regardless of income or background, are really achieving. That means recutting the budget pie and focusing resources on instruction, rather than transporting kids across the county. While the Wake system does a good job of meeting the needs of many parents and kids, there are other Wake students who are being sent into the world without the skills necessary to provide for their families and pursue their dreams. That is wrong.
