Each year, complaints about Wake County’s reassignment policy tend to die out once the deal is done, but this year’s plan to move 25,000 students has spawned a political movement that includes some very well connected, savvy people who realize the only way to change a policy is to defeat the board members who support it. From the News & Observer (emphasis is mine):

The reassignment of students from Lacy Elementary in Raleigh to Stough Elementary led to the creation of the Children’s Political Action Committee. The goal of the new group is to donate money to school board candidates this fall and to run an independent political advertising campaign.

“The only way to have an impact is at the ballot box,” said Dana Cope, a leader of the group. “We want to build a coalition that’s strong enough to last a long time.”

Four of the nine school board seats are on the ballot this October. Eleanor Goettee and Lori Millberg say they won’t run again. Patti Head and Horace Tart have not announced whether they’ll seek re-election.

Cope, the executive director of the State Employees Association of North Carolina, is an example of how politically connected the neighborhoods are that are slated to leave Lacy. The area near Glen Eden Drive includes the children of several lobbyists, large donors to the Democratic Party and officials in state government and the community college system.

It seems school board members have finally upset a group of people that may wield more power than they do. In short: what goes around comes around.