Raleighwood, NC

This Domain for Sale

Make me an offer!

Clyde Smith

clyde(at)netweed(dot)com

Gerald Grant: Hope and Despair in the American City: Why There Are No Bad Schools in Raleigh

Gerald Grant - Hope and Despair in the American City

I'm kicking off the Raleighwood Books category with a book I should have mentioned long ago:

Hope and Despair in the American City: Why There Are No Bad Schools in Raleigh
by Gerald Grant.

This is the volume often referred to when folks discuss why changing what works in the Wake County School System is a very bad idea.

Related Raleighwood, NC Coverage: Wake Co. School Board

Bob Geary: Wake County Goes to Hell, Bonus: School Board Coverage

Bob Geary looks at the big picture and finds that Wake County is going to hell.

Recent posts at Geary's Citizen Blog:

Wake schools: It’s not over; the battle is just beginning

Wake school board: the usual 5-4 for “community assignment zones”

School board on the brink; Debra Goldman has the comm

Del Burns resigns as Wake schools leader — in protest

Related Raleighwood, NC Coverage:
Bob Geary on Wake County School Board

NC Policy Watch: Diversity, Public Schools & The Gang of Five

NC Policy Watch has been posting quite a bit on the Wake County School Board and what they call The Gang of Five.

Below are links to a series of pieces by Chris Fitzsimon in the Fitzsimon File and pieces by Rob Schofield from Radical Right Reality Check and their Weekly Briefing.

From NC Policy Watch in 2010:

Fitzsimon File: Rigid ideology meets more reality

Weekly Briefing: Why you should march this Saturday

Fitzsimon File: The Follies

Fitzsimon File: Missteps in the march to resegregation

Weekly Briefing: From Massachusetts to Wake County

Fitzsimon File: Six weeks of backing up

Fitzsimon File: Race to the Right

From NC Policy Watch in 2009:

Radical Right Reality Check: How to fight the right

Fitzsimon File: Monday numbers

Radical Right Reality Check: An embarrassment to themselves

Fitzsimon File: The dismantling begins

Radical Right Reality Check: Talk about your “social experiments”

Fitzsimon File: The real agenda of the resegregationists

Fitzsimon File: The importance of public school integration and diversity

Weekly Briefing: Will Wake turn back the clock?

Weekly Briefing: Honoring Vernon Malone

Fitzsimon File: Flailing against diversity

Related Raleighwood, NC Coverage: Wake Co. School Board

Bob Geary on Wake County School Board

Bob Geary writes for the Independent Weekly, a publication with which I've had a love/hate relationship since their launch in Durham back in '82 or '83. That was also my first year out of college and I had an amazing time in Durham getting to know a progressive/radical community with a very deep bench.

Bob does some nice work and I'll try to update this post as regularly as I can. You can check IndyWeek for his regional news coverage and his Citizen blog for posts about the big town of Raleighwood.

Bob Geary on Wake County School Board Issues

From IndyWeek News in 2010:

Wake County goes to hell

Wake County politics: It's complicated

Diversity takes a backseat in Wake schools: Rich kid, poor kid

Why did the new majority hire its own attorney, Tom Farr?

Wake schools fight escalates

From the Citizen blog in 2010:

Wake schools: It’s not over; the battle is just beginning

Wake school board: the usual 5-4 for “community assignment zones”

School board on the brink; Debra Goldman has the comm

Del Burns resigns as Wake schools leader — in protest

HK on J is coming Feb. 13 — it's not a march, it's a movement worth joining

NAACP calls Sunday forum on threat to Wake schools; WakeUP sets coalition

Wake school board votes 5-4 to end year-round assignments — somehow

It's Tuesday, 5:40 pm — do you know where your school board is?

From IndyWeek News in 2009:

Conservative Wake school board members discover change is tougher
than it looks: A reality check

The Wake school board's conservative bloc grabs power:
Doesn't play well with others

Tedesco: No Wake schools coup planned—yet

From the Citizen blog in 2009:

Students launch online petition to preserve magnet schools in Wake

Tedesco wins, conservative majority now in control of Wake schools

Truitt drops out, warns against resegregation of schools in Wake

Truitt will drop out of District 2 race tomorrow, cementing
"neighborhood schools" majority

Truitt versus Tedesco: It matters.

Now that the rabid-right Republicans run the Wake schools,
will they wreck them?

Wake schools to come apart? Will the new school board fire Del Burns?

Related Raleighwood, NC Coverage: Wake Co. School Board

N&O Blog: WakeEd by T. Keung Hui

WakeEd Blog: Home Page

Built using the WakeEd Blog RSS Feed powered by Feed2JS
with hosting by Modevia Web Services. Thanks, y'all!

Related Raleighwood, NC Coverage: Wake Co. School Board

N&O Covers Resegregationist 5 Campaign w/Some Inadvertent Disinformation

N&O blogger T. Keung Hui writes about the Resegregationist 5: Wanted for Crimes Against Wake County School Children campaign but inadvertently, I hope, uses a classic disinformation technique of the juxtaposition of unrelated facts in a manner that might discredit me (at least among those who aren't already totally appalled, lol!).

After discussing my post on Monday and an interchange with a blogger who couldn't be bothered to read the whole post, he states:

"Regardless, tensions are definitely higher at school board meetings now. Even though the crowd was smaller, more security was present on Tuesday. A sign at the public comment signup table told people to show proper behavior during the meeting."

"After the meeting ended, security escorted the board members to their cars."

Now, having discussed such things with reporters before, my best guess is that he'll say the term "regardless" separates the two which technically it does. However, the average reader won't necessarily process such details but only note the narrative flow: Monday Clyde did this, Tuesday security was heightened.

I don't think he intended to create that opportunity for misinterpretation but that's one of the problems with journalism as a practice, a reliance on stylebooks and professional practices that are increasingly disconnected from the readers themselves.

You can simply ask whoever called for increased security what was up and why they made that move.  That should confirm my statements in a responsible, journalistic manner and possibly even avoid stirring up the real nutcases that already seem to be crawling out of the woodwork in response to my project.

Besides, if I was planning violence, I wouldn't have a blog and you would never hear my name.  Instead, I've decided to make each stage of this campaign public so I will be posting about whatever I do.  Think open source brand destruction rather than nutcase telegraphing his every move. Lol!

Related Raleighwood, NC Coverage: Wake Co. School Board

School Board Member Debra Goldman Doesn't Support "Ramming the Changes" Through

Debra Goldman seems to have thrown Ron Margiotta for a loop by not voting in absolute lockstep with the rest of The Resegregationist 5:

Says Commandant Margiotta: "She's going to go where she wants to go. But you ask yourself, 'Where next?'"

That's cool and implies something less than total fascist mind control on the part of those who hate poor kids but she still says she's against diversity so she will remain a target of Raleighwood, NC's Wanted for Crimes Against Wake County School Children campaign.

Coming soon: DIY Tools for Brand Destruction featuring The Resegregationist 5!

Anaylytical Update: I've been thinking about Goldman's move and I'm sure some will take heart in her potential for change.  But there are certain things one should keep in mind:

A) Given the nature of this board's actions up to now and Goldman's repeated claims that her actions discussed in the above N&O article accomplish the same things the other Resegregationists want, but on a different timetable, it is possible that this whole scenario is staged to throw off the opposition and also gauge the response to such a move.

B) If Goldman honestly feels that "ramming" changes down the throats of the opposition is a bad move, the next time a measure is introduced without allowing the opposition to see it followed by a forced vote, Goldman will express her disagreement with that move.

[This is what smart reporters would be asking her about right now.  Are there any on this story at the N&O or are they simply going down their checklist of things required for "balanced" reportage?]

C) At the end of the day, this appears to be a short-term tactical disagreement between members of The Resegregationist 5, rather than a disagreement over long-term goals.  Perhaps Goldman just doesn't want the rather obvious label of "sock puppet" and good for her!  Ruining the lives of children can be accomplished much more effectively if one maintains the image of an independent brand.

Related Raleighwood, NC Coverage: Wake Co. School Board

The Resegregationist 5: Wanted for Crimes Against Wake County School Children

Ron Margiotta, Wanted for Crimes Against Wake County School Children

Chris Fitzsimon of NC Policy Watch has been dubbing these Old South Wake County School Board Members the "Gang of Five", a label the News & Observer's T. Keung Hui feels will stick, I think "The Resegregationist 5" is much more fitting. Look for streetart coming soon!

Debra Goldman, Wanted for Crimes Against Wake County School Children

For a little bit more on these criminally minded politicians, including email addresses and phone numbers, check the School System's website.

Chris Malone, Wanted for Crimes Against Wake County School Children

Deborah Prickett, Wanted for Crimes Against Wake County School Children

Note: this is an independent campaign with no official association with anybody other than Clyde. However, once we provide DIY Tools for Brand Destruction, many will join without anyone needing to know their names. Yay, crowdsourcing!

John Tedesco, Wanted for Crimes Against Wake County School Children

Related Raleighwood, NC Coverage: Wake Co. School Board