President Trump is rarely right about much, but he was correct earlier this year when he observed that health care is complicated and that fixing it is hard. Sadly and ironically, however, these difficult truths are now conspiring to confuse some observers as they try to report on Trump’s recent efforts to sabotage the Affordable Care Act and the rate hikes they have spurred for consumers.
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National civil rights leaders call for the rejection of North Carolina’s Thomas Farr [Editor’s note: The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee (which includes North Carolina’s Thom Tillis) meets today at 10:00 a.m. to consider a bevy of President Trump’s nominees to serve as federal judges and U.S. Attorneys. Each of the judicial nominees is being considered for a lifetime appointment. As was highlighted in a July issue of the NC Policy Watch “Weekly Briefing,” none of the nominees on this list has received more negative national attention than Thomas Farr, who was nominated to fill a long-vacant slot on the U.S. District Court for the North Carolina’s Eastern District.
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The Southern Regional Education Board (SREB), a nonpartisan organization that provides independent data and policy recommendations to its 16 member states in the southeast, has published new state-specific data on college affordability that paint a damning picture of the General Assembly’s record. The report shows that both cost of attendance and student loan debt have risen dramatically from 2008 to 2014. These increases disproportionately create barriers to economic advancement for students of color and students from low-income families.
North Carolina’s constitution places a very important responsibility on the General Assembly. State leaders are required to provide higher education for free “as far as practicable.” Article IX, Section 9 reads:
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The framers of the U.S. Constitution designed a system that helps insulate federal judges from political pressure. Federal judges are appointed and can only be removed by impeachment. Congress cannot even reduce their salaries. This gives judges the freedom to protect individual rights, even when their decisions might be unpopular with voters or politicians.
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As a pediatrician, it is my job to advocate for the health of our children. It is also my job to promote and advocate for evidence-based programs and policies that work. That is why I believe so strongly that we must require high-quality, regular physical education in our North Carolina schools. There are three very clear benefits of physical education for our state’s youth.
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When I began exercising regularly, I had a decision to make. Was I going to keep buying inexpensive sneakers and suffer through foot pain and high-cost medical care, or invest in a more expensive shoe that protects my feet and last longer? After wasting a lot of time and money on low-cost shoes, I finally got wise and chose the latter. Albeit small in comparison, my dilemma is similar to a more significant issue that many businesses face when considering whether to support raising the minimum wage.
In fact, the benefits for businesses of raising the minimum wage far outweigh the costs.
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Last week, the General Assembly announced which legislators will serve on the Joint Legislative Task Force on Education Finance Reform. The Task Force, created via the 2017 budget bill, is charged with developing recommendations to radically overhaul North Carolina’s school finance system. A serious review of North Carolina’s school finance system could substantially benefit the state. School funding matters, particularly for students in low-income families. Unfortunately, early indications suggest that the Task Force is uninterested in reforms that would actually improve educational delivery in the state.
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When a Navy recruiter visited his high school, Carlos was among those students eager to sign up. In communities of North Carolina’s Outer Banks, there’s a long tradition of sending young men into the Navy and Coast Guard. “I thought if I could serve the country in the military, it could help to pay for my college education,” he said recently. “But they told me that since your Social Security card and your driver’s license allow you only to work and drive, we can’t take you.”
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The disaster in Houston should not have come as a surprise. Scores were killed and thousands driven from their homes in catastrophic flooding. An estimated 30% of Harris County (which includes Houston) was underwater at the height of the floods. Billions of dollars in property damage was done, and recovery will take years. Even while relief efforts continue and the human tragedy is mourned, it is important to begin understanding the origins of this disaster, so that we can increase our chances of averting or reducing other disasters to come.
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Editor’s note: Recently, there have been strong and troubling indications that the Trump administration may act soon to terminate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, commonly referred to as “DACA.” The DACA program has provided protection from deportation and the ability to work and attend school for more than 800,000 young people, including approximately 28,000 in North Carolina. In response to the prospect of such a cruel and inhumane act, an array of divergent groups is speaking out in loud opposition.
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My home state was once a model for progress. For half a century, North Carolina was a beacon of moderation in the South, an outlier dubbed the “Dixie Dynamo” as early as the 1960’s for its farsighted reforms and public investments. The state had its share of problems, especially around the pernicious legacy of Jim Crow, but many of its trend lines were positive and generated an infectious optimism.
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This week marks the beginning of the school year for most of North Carolina’s 1.5 million public school students. It’s an exciting time of year for students, parents, and educators, alike, as everyone considers the vast potential for the year ahead. Undoubtedly, this will be a great year for many students. But far too many North Carolina students still face barriers to reaching their full potential due to the General Assembly’s continuing failure to adequately fund our public schools.
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This month, North Carolina lawmakers had a golden opportunity to adopt fair, nonpartisan standards for drawing new legislative voting districts. Instead, they opted for politics as usual, keeping partisanship at the core of a deeply flawed redistricting process. The General Assembly has been ordered by a federal court to redraw dozens of racially gerrymandered legislative districts.
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