Progressive Voices Archive

Wake County School Board Chair Ron Margiotta has said that he and the other members of the board are not “social engineers.” He believes that using poverty and/or race to create a diverse school district would be “social engineering.”

So here we are again. In June, our legislature passed a budget with a $500 million hole in it and some estimates point to a 2011 budget shortfall in excess of $4 billion. The situation looks pretty bleak, but it is not hopeless. If we are serious about putting our financial house in order, and making our state a healthier place, we should increase our cigarette tax by at least $1 or more as soon as the legislature comes back into session in January. In case you are counting, increasing the cigarette tax by $1 per pack will raise an additional $366 million in the first year and bring North Carolina’s cigarette tax to the current national average of $ 1.45.

Finally, here’s something Republicans and Democrats can agree on: taxes are shockingly low. Wait, you thought I was talking about today’s Republicans and Democrats? Sadly, no: I’m referring to people across the ideological spectrum throughout most of the past 100 years.

This month marks the 90th Anniversary of women’s suffrage in the United States and it’s looking more and more like time for another Suffrage Parade.

More than 2.5 years after the national economy began to collapse under the weight of the housing and financial crisis, almost fifteen million Americans-nearly 10 percent of the nation’s labor force-are still looking for work. Nine million more have been forced to cut back hours or have been unable to find full-time work.

One of the best things state leaders can do to help keep our state’s economic house in order is to to help homeowners keep their own houses and protect those trying to buy a house. Happily, a bill passed by the North Carolina legislature will do just that.

Many Americans can’t remember what they ate for breakfast, let alone pay any attention to history-recent or otherwise. Take our current debate over national economic policy, which is taking place in a historical funhouse where the factual record is constantly distorted. This twisted historical mirror is deluding people into blaming the current administration for a near depression it did not cause, dismissing all the attempts (as underwhelming as some of them are) to confront the crisis, and running back into the hands of conservatives who are promising only more of the same deregulation and tax cuts for the rich that drove the economy off the rails just two years ago.

What if there was a way to create jobs for North Carolina’s working families now — and help everyone from kindergartners to adults changing careers get a high-quality education at the same time?

U.S. District Judge Joseph Tauro’s recent ruling in Massachusetts that the federal law banning same-sex marriage is unconstitutional reminded me of something. There comes a moment in every struggle for equality when the arguments for maintaining discriminatory laws and practices suddenly seem absurd to reasonable people.

North Carolina is strongest when our vital public structures are strongest. Those public institutions - high-quality schools for our children, the public safety officers that protect us, and well-maintained transportation infrastructure - provide the fuel for a thriving economy.

Doctors, hospitals, insurance companies, and patient advocates don’t generally agree on everything. But almost everyone thinks that Dr. Don Berwick is an inspired choice to lead the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Everyone, that is, except extreme partisans.

The state of North Carolina condemned seven men to die who were later exonerated and has denied them any compensation. We owe them.

The shadow of the housing crisis is still looming large over North Carolina. With next year’s foreclosure starts projected at above 70,000 and more than two-million North Carolinians still lacking quality, affordable housing, the challenge seems insurmountable at times. But, while challenges test our collective spirit, they often inspire innovative and progressive solutions.

Many people may not even be aware that corporal punishment is still allowed in North Carolina, but it is. In fact, there were 1,400 incidents of corporal punishment in North Carolina schools during the 2008-2009 school year despite the fact that minority of the state’s school districts continue to use corporal punishment.

To: Dr. Ricky Langley, Chairman, and the members of the NC Pesticide Board:

On behalf of the Farmworker Advocacy Network and twelve other allied health and advocacy organizations, I write to express our dismay at the recent settlement the Board approved with Ag-Mart Produce and Jeffrey Oxley.