The merger was proposed initially by business leaders in the early 1970s out of concerns that continued "white flight" from Raleigh's inner-city schools would negatively impact the county's overall economy.

Despite improved integration, test results among poorer students continue to lag; for the 2007–2008 school year, only 18% of the district's schools met the adequate yearly progress goals of the No Child Left Behind Act,[9] with only 71 percent passing state standardised tests.

[10] Due to the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling restricting the use of race in assigning students, Wake has been cited as a model for how other school systems can still maintain diversity in enrollment.

[14] The newly elected board gained a 5:4 Republican majority and was successful in overturning the integration policy that had been operating in Wake County for years.

For example, PTA chapters at some of the affected schools have considered the purchase of sun shades for playgrounds to provide shelter for students during North Carolina's hot and humid summers.

Salem Elementary in Apex was also considered for conversion back to a traditional calendar, but that move was voted against by the board.

Also at that same meeting, the board voted to convert Leesville Road Middle in North Raleigh to a year-round calendar.

[27] In May 2009, the state Supreme Court ruled that parental consent is not needed to send students to year-round schools.

[31] The prior plan, under which the public schools of the county were to "have no more than 40 percent of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch" was set aside for concerns over long student bus rides, but immediately raised comments among the public and the NAACP that the outcome of the shift would be to "resegregate" schools.

[31] The decision led to protests spearheaded by the state NAACP chapter, with arrests in June and July,[32][33] and to the resignation of the superintendent of Wake County schools.

[34] The NAACP lodged a civil rights complaint with the office of the United States Department of Education, which began an investigation into the matter.

[36][37] In January 2011, The Washington Post featured a story on the controversy,[34] following which it and the Associated Press were provided a letter by United States Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, in which he wrote that it was "troubling to see North Carolina's Wake County school board take steps to reverse a long-standing policy to promote racial diversity in its schools" and "urge[d] school boards across America to fully consider the consequences before taking such action".

The Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce, the area's largest business membership organisation, has suggested this plan to the Wake County school board.

[40] In May 2022, a teacher in a preschool classroom at Ballentine Elementary School (part of the Wake County Public School System) in Fuquay-Varina was revealed to have shown her students LGBT-themed flashcards to teach them the colors of the rainbow, with one of the flashcards depicting a pregnant man.