Fitzsimon File

Easley and Bowles stand up

Say what you want about Governor Mike Easley, but he deserves a lot credit for continuing to stand up for undocumented kids in North Carolina who want to continue their education at a community college or public university.

Easley told the North Carolina News Network this week that the recent decision by Community College President Scott Ralls to ban the admission of academically qualified students who are undocumented was an example of "poor leadership."

Ralls and the community college board cited an advisory letter from Attorney General Roy Cooper's office to support the change in policy. But Cooper's position is not only a questionable interpretation of federal case law; it was also contradicted by officials at the Department of Homeland Security, who told reporters that the agency had no position on denying admission to the students

Easley correctly describes the back and forth as "jerking students around," and it ought to be about the students after all, kids who have graduated from North Carolina public schools and were brought here by their parents.

Easley's position stands in sharp contrast to his party's nominee for Governor, Lieutenant Governor Perdue, who talks often on the campaign trail about helping children. That concern seems to stop at the community college door for some kids.

UNC President Erskine Bowles is the other prominent state official standing up to the anti-immigrant rhetoric, announcing that campuses of the university system will continue to admit undocumented students who pay out of state tuition.

One conservative pundit recently said that since the policy affects only a few hundred students in university system and community colleges combined, the whole debate is primarily a symbolic one.  Don't tell that to a high school valedictorian who can't go to college because of his or her parents' decision to come here to work and improve their lives.

There is certainly a symbolic aspect of the debate, as it forces state leaders to decide if they want to stand up for students or embrace the rhetoric of hate and fear.

The realtors' "Pryorities"

Another week, another proposal by Rep. Pryor Gibson to help the realtors and homebuilders. Last week, Gibson filed a bill to repeal last year's legislation that gave counties the authority to raise the real estate transfer tax by .4 percent if local voters approve it.  Gibson apparently does not want voters to have a say in how to pay for new schools, though the realtors' big money does allow much room for a real debate in counties anyway.

Consultant Brad Crone said on a panel this week that the realtors have paid him $800,000 for his work to defeat the transfer tax proposal in 20 counties. A recent television story about Gibson's bill reported that voters in all 20 counties voted against the tax, but neglected to mention that the realtors spent close to a million dollars in the campaigns, making the results a foregone conclusion.

This week Gibson introduced legislation that would overturn new stormwater regulations adopted by the Environmental Management Commission (EMC) to protect water quality in coastal counties. The realtors and homebuilders lost the battle over the rules before the Commission, so now they are taking their case to the General Assembly, where their campaign contributions and well-heeled lobbyists have more influence.

Rep. Gibson is clearly their guy and his legislation to reverse the EMC is not only bad policy, it makes a mockery of the state rule making procedure. If you don't like a regulation that is made after public hearings and thorough debate and you have power and influence, you can change it.

Wonder what Rep. Gibson will introduce next week.

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This entry was posted on Friday, May 16th, 2008 at 5:58 pm and is filed under Fitzsimon File. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.