The pendulum of politics swings to and fro. Two years ago, a slate of four candidates running under the Republican banner swept the field and joined with an incumbent ally to form a single-seat majority on the nine-member Wake County school board.
Much weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth among those whose favorites were sent packing. Much gloating and over-reaching - that old devil hubris - among the winners.
Then came the counter-reaction, as the forces who'd been vanquished in 2009 pulled up their socks, raised money from deep-pocketed Democrats, got organized and laid a thumping on their opponents in the election last month.
Except the thumping in north Raleigh's District 3 wasn't quite severe enough to settle the key question: Which group - we might as well call them red or blue - will enjoy that 5-4 edge at least until the next round of voting in 2013?
District 3 incumbent Kevin Hill, the retired principal who three weeks ago fell just short of winning another four-year term, sides with the blue contingent. Challenger Heather Losurdo, the school activist who stepped down as head of the Northern Wake Republican Club to campaign for the board, scarcely hides her partisan leanings. No one can say that the voters who will decide Tuesday's runoff contest don't stand at a well-marked fork in the road. And record amounts are being spent to try to persuade them to take either this fork or that.
Losurdo and her supporters want people to think that choosing Hill would mean sending the Wake schools back in time to a regime of "forced busing," minus the services of Superintendent Tony Tata, who would get the ax.
Hill's take on all that: Nonsense. He says he'd give Tata, in office for nine months, an A-minus - not bad from someone who voted against hiring the retired Army general in the first place.
As for busing, Hill says 1) he supports Tata's parental-choice approach to student assignment, and 2) he simply wants to ensure that kids who might otherwise end up in schools with lots of academically challenged students have a decent chance to go to a school with a better academic profile.
Yes, there's an obligation to help students at the "low-achieving" schools, too - a favorite Losurdo talking point. A magic wand would come in handy, but lacking that, the schools must be able to afford smaller classes, top-notch teachers, excellent facilities. Last time we checked, Wake Republicans weren't exactly falling all over themselves in eager anticipation of those kinds of investments.
Whichever group of members (to the extent that they always vote in blocs, which they don't) comes out on top Tuesday, this seems like a good time to put together a punch list for the new board - some goals to help the school system do a better job of serving Wake's families and taxpayers:
Fund the schools at a level geared to all-around excellence. That covers well-designed and well-sized buildings, classroom supplies so that teachers don't have to buy them out of their own pockets, equipment for science labs and other specialized courses.
It covers money to attract and keep skilled teachers, and money for enough buses to avoid the punitively early starting times common in middle and high schools (depriving teenagers of essential sleep).
The school board doesn't levy taxes, but it must make its case for ample budgets to the county commissioners - and beyond them, to the people. Scrimping on school expenditures is a dead-end proposition.
Bear down on helping students navigate the tricky path through middle school. When students arriving for their first year of high school already are behind the curve, which happens all too often, the odds of graduating dwindle. And young people who fail to earn a high school diploma represent a huge waste of potential affecting the whole community.
Give teachers what they need - more time, fewer students - so that students can get sufficient help and guidance. (The obligation also lies with parents, even when focused on their jobs and their own activities, to make sure children aren't slighted.) Ramp up expectations for achievement and behavior.
Affirm the importance of enrichment programs in music and the performing arts as ways to instill pride, perseverance and the joy that comes with creating things of beauty.
Hold fast to Wake's long-standing commitment that wherever a family lives, it should have access to a school where children are educated to high standards. There can be no zones of school neglect - where the fabric of neighborhoods easily can rot and social pathologies gain the upper hand.
That is not the Wake County way, and because it's not, the county has an outstanding, albeit not perfect, school system to show for it. That system helps drive the county's prosperity and appeal.
Improvements? By all means. But with people in charge who know how Wake's schools became as good as they are, and who understand the need to avoid changes that would only mess them up.
