Here’s a pretty good indication of the state of the debate about public schools in North Carolina. The Republicans and the right-wing think tanks that craft their talking points are now boasting about their figures that show North Carolina ranks 42nd in the country in per pupil spending and that the Republican budget [Continue Reading...]

It has been just over a year since the Republican majority elected Thom Tillis Speaker of the House, making him the most public face of the first Republican-led General Assembly in North Carolina 140 years. Tillis began the 2011 General Assembly session promising to focus on creating jobs and touting his business consulting [Continue Reading...]

8—number of days before last Thursday’s special session that House Speaker Thom Tillis sent an email to members of the House saying the session would be a skeletal session only and that no votes would be taken (“Skeleton session next week,” Greensboro News & Record Capital Beat, February 8, 2012) 13—number of days [Continue Reading...]

This week’s ridiculous special session of the General Assembly was clearly a waste of $50,000 of taxpayer money, but we did learn a couple of things. First, not many people trust the word of House Speaker Thom Tillis. Tillis said repeatedly in the days leading up to the session that that no votes [Continue Reading...]

If you are looking for a perfect example of what’s wrong in Raleigh these days, the legislative report released this week calling for the privatization of state attractions and the closing of historic sites is a good place to start. The report was commissioned by legislative leaders and prepared by the Program Evaluation [Continue Reading...]

Most of the controversy about the budget passed by the Republican-led General Assembly last summer has focused on the damage it is doing to education, human services, and environmental protections. That’s understandable given that teachers and teacher assistants were fired, vital services were cut to the most vulnerable people in the state, and [Continue Reading...]

6—total number of women currently serving in the 50-member North Carolina Senate (N.C. General Assembly) 3—number of Democratic women serving in the 50-member North Carolina Senate (Ibid) 2—number of Democratic women double-bunked in the new legislative districts drawn by the Republican legislative leadership (“Lewis: Map bias accusations ‘absurd’, WRAL-TV, February 9, 2012) 22—number [Continue Reading...]

Rucho’s situational ethics Republican Senator Bob Rucho had an interesting reaction to the news that Congresswoman Sue Myrick from Charlotte was not going to run for reelection. Rucho, the head of the Senate committee that drew the new district lines for Congress and the General Assembly, was asked if he was interesting in [Continue Reading...]

The next special session of the General Assembly convenes next Thursday at noon. House Speaker Thom Tillis said in an email to members of the House this week that it will be a skeletal session only, that no votes will be taken except the procedural one to approve the House Journal and to [Continue Reading...]

High turnover in the General Assembly is not unusual in a year after legislative districts are redrawn. Many lawmakers who realize they are facing long odds of being reelected often choose to retire or run for another office. The majority party that draws the maps not only tries to maximize the number of [Continue Reading...]

Republican leaders in North Carolina have a problem. People are beginning to understand that dismantling public education is an important part of their agenda. And that is not a popular position. People still believe in public schools, despite years of misleading but well-funded attacks on them by the think tanks on the Right [Continue Reading...]

14—number of days since Cabarrus County Board of Education voted 5-2 to approve a proposal by for-profit company K-12, Inc. to operate a virtual charter school. (“Virtual Charter Academy gains initial approval,” Concord Independent Tribune, January 24, 2012) 2,750—number of students in North Carolina that K-12 Inc. projects serving in the first year [Continue Reading...]

Hold off on measuring those drapes Thursday morning’s news that Erskine Bowles would not seek the Democratic nomination for governor sent many Republicans and right-wing pundits into a frenzy of jubilation. They were convinced that only Bowles could keep former Charlotte mayor and traditional conservative turned Tea Partier Pat McCrory out of the [Continue Reading...]

Speculation about likely Democratic candidates for governor and lieutenant governor is dominating Raleigh’s political world these days. It is also serving as reminder of a major problem that persists in our political system, known as the wealth primary. Most of the stories about potential candidates mention money prominently, often before anything else, how [Continue Reading...]

Former Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory was making the rounds at television stations across the state in the last few days leading up to his formal announcement for governor on Tuesday. McCrory’s “one-on-one” interviews with news anchors not only provided a preview of his campaign kickoff but also a sense of the themes he [Continue Reading...]