Back in January, we noted the efforts by the newly elected, Republican-majority school board in Wake County, North Carolina, to undo a celebrated integration policy in favor of "neighborhood schools," which would likely concentrate low-income students in environments less likely to produce success.
The "neighborhood schools" plan wasn't scheduled to go into effect until the 2012-2013 school year, so its opponents believed they had one more chance to stop it: at the voting booth. Many members of the nine-person school board, including Republican board chairman Ken Margiotta, were up for re-election in yesterday's election.
Republicans weren't going down quietly, or cheaply. Art Pope, the big-money puppeteer of North Carolina politics whom Rachel profiled last week, was quite generous to candidates like Mr. Margiotta:
According to an Institute for Southern Studies analysis of the most recent campaign report filings, Pope and his wife, Katherine, donated $4,000 each -- the maximum allowed by law -- to three GOP candidates who want to end Wake's diversity policy: current school board chair Ron Margiotta, and new candidates Heather Losurdo and Donna Williams.
Besides being opponents of the school system's diversity policy, Margiotta and Losurdo have come under fire for making racially-charged remarks -- Margiotta for referring to pro-diversity protesters as "animals," and Losurdo for using the acronym "LMAO" for "laughing my a-- off" in response to a Facebook posting by her husband that said, "The skunk has replaced the Eagle as the new symbol of the American Presidency. It is half black, half white, and everything it does stinks!"
Democrats, for the most part, dodged the Pope money train and ran away with last night's races. Chairman Margiotta was ousted by his Democratic challenger, and three other Democrats also coasted to wins.
The fifth, and pivotal, race remains in limbo. It involves the LMAO-at-the-skunk-who's-Obama lady:
[Democratic incumbent Kevin] Hill leads Losurdo with 49.7 percent of the votes but doesn't have the necessary 50 percent needed to secure a win. [Heather] Losurdo, who received 39.8 percent of the vote, is the only chance now that the current majority has to remain in control of the board. She said she will ask for a run-off.
The NAACP, which has been very vocal in the area opposing the "neighborhood schools" strategy, hailed the results as "a major step forward." That said, none of the Democrats who won (or Kevin Hill) have committed to voting down the policy. It remains to be seen whether the results hailed by the NAACP will amount to real change.
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I bet if those people "heard from their constituents" vociferously enough (aka OWS) they would change their minds, course they can always "put it on the ballot"!
Ok, lets have a little sense of humor - that skunk line was funny. Sometimes the best humor is a little irreverent and over the top. Comparing Obama to a skunk is minor compared to some of the things that have been hurled at him. Posting and commenting on that as an elected official is not smart, but it wouldn't be enough for me to vote against them (their stance on integration definitely would).
As far as the fact that the Democrats ousting the Republicans, that is not shocking. When either party overreaches their election victory and takes it as a mandate to impose their will, they typically face a quick backlash from the voting public. It makes me happy to know that, in 2011, if you try to step the country backwards on school integration that you will be voted out of office -even if it is a red state like North Carolina.
Not funny! The problem with most people in this world today is that we don't respect ourselves or others.
North Carolina actually went for Obama in the 2008 presidential election. With all of the redistricting that recently took place however, I seriously doubt it will remain blue for the 2012 presidential election.
Meg: we're doing our best!
I think it would be more appropriate to change the GOP symbol from an Elephant to an Ostrich. GOP representatives all too easily forget (or suppress) the truth as a lie seems to be more politically desirable (to their Corporate Donors, if not their constituents). On the other hand, it seems that members of the GOP all too often have their heads in the sand, like an ostrich, albeit for different reasons. Remaining ignorant to the truth makes it easier to lie as it then becomes much more possible to avoid cognitive dissonance.
At the very least, we need GOP Representatives who won't commit to any pledges or oaths outside of the oath of office after the get (re)elected, with the exception of wedding vows, etc., that cannot interfere with the oath of office.
We don't know about the local politics. But it would be very easy for the Dems to vote against the neighborhood school policies. They can sidestep the issue with sage advice "Don't fix what isn't broken."
I live in Wake County, NC. This county votes for school board in districts, which is how Art Pope got the majority anyway. October elections in odd-numbered years don't attract a lot of attention. If I had paid attention 2 years ago I wouldn't be "represented" by one of Art Pope's cronies. Also, only 5 of 9 county districts were in play yesterday. The Republicans who bullied into the Board in 2009 (including the Board member in my district) are there until 2013. The way these elections are structured gives a very few people lots of power.
This is a good first step, but the war is not over. The people who won mostly won not by vowing to reverse the neighborhood school policy, but by promising to bring civility and consensus back to the Board. The new policy as rolled out by the new district's superintendent looks great (almost too good to be true), but no one will know how it really works until it's put in place.
One correction in the headline: the school board chair that was ousted is Ron Margiotta, not Ken Margiotta.
Rachel & producers: thanks for highlighting this.
This is the most disturbing part of Jamil's post.
Thank you for highlighting this again. I went to school here, and a lot of this happened when I was a senior in high school. I went to protests and watched my friends get arrested because we WANTED to be bussed that extra half hour so we could go to the school we knew and loved. Sometime between when I graduated and now, they re-did the districts and although Margiotta tried to destroy my school and never took my phone calls, I couldn't vote in the election anymore.
Also, some credit is due to Superintendent Tony Tata - he was appointed by the old Art Pope-supported board thinking he'd be able to push the whole thing forward, but he ended up hurting them more than helping them.
If the people occupying wall street would spend as much time and passion occupying their local and state voting booths this country would be in alot better shape. People need to stop voting against their own self interests and start voting with common sense.
People around this counry are standing up to Republicans trying to bring back Jim Crow. MSM for the most part ignores the stories.
quick correction, it's Ron, not Ken Margiotta...secondly...thanks for highlighting this! People need to understand, these crazy tea partiers down here almost made our public schools lose our national accreditation because of their arrogance, stupidity and racism...the simple fact is, none of us liked our kids being moved from school to school every year because of poor planning by whomever fell asleep at the community planning/school building/building permit department...and no one likes the rule that it is okay for a kid to spend 1.5 hours each way on a bus but what we should all like even less if changes in the diversity policy caused over 50% of our schools to be failing schools - who'd want to move their big business in to that community, much less buy your house? AND we also voted to increase our property taxes yesterday to pay for roads and affordable housing so I guess some of us are ok with well spent tax increases...80% of us.
Wasn't this the fight in South Boston from YEARS ago!
Really? REALLY? It's 2011, people. How is racism still this present and blatant? It's disheartening as a young person.
As a hopeful future teacher, I cannot express how fearful I am to come into the education system when things like this keep happening. It seems as if some new travesty has affected the education system every day. How can students ever be expected to learn when we as adults cannot get our ish together?