In another effort to pander to the minority of Americans who want to make abortion and birth control inaccessible, President Trump has again used women’s health to cynically play politics.
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Dear Rep. Brawley, With the impending approval of Bill HB 514 which allows for municipal charter schools in a budget process that is intentionally kept within committee and out of democratic debate, this voter has to ask you one question (actually many): Do you realize what you have championed?
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Apple is reportedly coming to town, or at least considering it, and state lawmakers are tweaking the state budget to lure the corporate giant with a new package of incentives. Unfortunately, when one examines the latest proposal released by Senator Berger and Speaker Moore in today’s budget, it’s hard not to be reminded of the old “Looney Tunes” cartoons...
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In the aftermath of the recent successful push to ward off huge cuts to food assistance programs in the federal Farm Bill, advocates are now organizing to defeat another discriminatory and destructive attack on the supports to families who are struggling to get by and on our immigration system that should allow families to stay together.
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When I headed off to college, I could not have predicted that many of the funding streams, positions, and benefits in North Carolina’s education system would evaporate over the course of my teaching career. Since 2008, state education funding has been on a downward slide. When adjusted for inflation, North Carolina spends about 7.9% less than it did before the recession.
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As daily news of scandal and corruption comes to light, an underlying message emerges: our nation is in dire need of a moral revival. We had a good start fifty years ago when the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stood with sanitation workers in Memphis to demand fair wages and dignity. Their “I am a man” signs conveyed a simple message:
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Don’t overthink it: The best solution to what ails NC’s school funding system isn’t that complicated
When the N.C. General Assembly convenes on May 16, legislators will be “welcomed” by a throng of advocates for high-quality public schools – teachers prominent among them. More power to these noble loud-mouths, and may they make headway in their against-the-tide quest for better pay and working conditions, more school resources and (gasp!) more respect.
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In 1999, when I started teaching in rural Alamance County, my mentor, a wise and wonderful woman told me, “Join the NCAE and read what they send you.” NCAE is the acronym for the North Carolina Association of Educators. It is our state chapter of the National Education Association, the professional organization for teachers, teaching assistants, administrators, and others who work in public schools.
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North Carolinians want the legislature’s judicial attacks to end. It’s time for lawmakers to listen.
When the North Carolina General Assembly convenes in a few weeks for the 2018 legislative short session, lawmakers will once again be asked to consider new judicial voting maps. At last Friday’s meeting of the Joint Judicial Redistricting and Reform Committee, members evaluated three proposals that still appear intended, as one high-ranking official said last year, to affect the partisan makeup of our courts.
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A tired story repeats itself every year when state rankings of teacher pay are released. Public school advocates claim that North Carolina’s low teacher pay ranking and shortfall from national average pay levels indicate that we aren’t paying our teachers enough. Right-wing pundits then try to rebut the public school advocates by claiming that – when adjusted for North Carolina’s lower cost-of-living – teacher pay is actually pretty good.
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The foundational legislation for our farm and food system, known as the Farm Bill, will soon be voted on in the U.S. House of Representatives. This package of laws, which is renewed every few years, authorizes and funds federal nutrition and agriculture programs around the country, supporting farmers and consumers alike. The Farm Bill has a long legacy of bipartisanship.
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Imagine your life if your boss could arbitrarily—and legally—take away chunks of your paycheck after you earned it and keep that money for him or herself. As strange as it sounds, that was the basic idea enshrined in a recent Trump administration scheme to let restaurant owners take control over their employees’ tips – a scheme that ultimately went too far even for Republicans in Congress.
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