The Raleigh News & Observer editorial, titled “Consequences,” illustrates again today the disingenuous behavior of a group of whiners who refuse to accept that Wake County voters legitimately placed the current school board in charge. Failing to get their policy preference enacted through a fair democratic process, the losing side is now trying other, less honorable tactics. They desperately want to make this a racial case, throwing the term ‘anti-diversity’ at the board’s policy in the latest salvo. And in conjunction with the NAACP, they have now opted for more of a strong-arm approach, selectively targeting Wake schools for scrutiny by school accreditation officials. The clear hope is that the threat of accreditation loss will bully the school board, or scare parents, into submission.
This end-run move is in direct defiance Wake voters’ preferences, for which they have little regard, and for the process by which the current board came to be elected. Apparently there is little tolerance for democratic processes that do not yield the ‘correct’ results, either. If voters have regrets they are free to express them in the next school board election cycle.
It’s been well documented that the superior performance claims for Wake’s socioeconomic diversity program cannot be substantiated. Terry Stoops has done great work documenting the performance comparisons, as this recent press release demonstrates. Let’s hope that facts, and not threats or harassment, will prevail.
