In 2009, Wake County voters elected a new Republican majority to the county school board. Those board members made it their mission to dismantle a long-standing school assignment plan that emphasized socio-economic diversity. In the ensuing two years, the Wake County school board has seen the resignation of its old superintendent, the hiring of a new one and the ongoing reconfiguration of its assignment plan. Board members have also seen themselves on the national news as police broke up protests at school board meetings and led opponents away in handcuffs. On Tuesday, voters in five of Wake County’s nine school board districts will have the chance to weigh in on the course the public schools are taking. Host Frank Stasio talks with a panel of journalists about the races, the unprecedented amount of money fueling the campaigns, and the effect this election will have on Wake County. Panelists are Dave DeWitt, WUNC’s Raleigh Bureau Chief and education reporter; Sue Sturgis, reporter for Facing South, an online publication of the Institute for Southern Studies; and Charles Duncan Pardo, editor of the Raleigh Public Record.
Amber Nimocks came to The State of Things in January 2009. She is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a survivor of 15 years in the newspaper business. As a reporter and editor, her posts have included such exotic locales as her hometown of Fayetteville, Robeson County, Wilmington, Raleigh and Fort Worth, Texas.
Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.