Civitas ReviewThe Blog of the Civitas Institute

Jun

19

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According to this WTVD news report and video, dozens of undocumented young people, who graduated from North Carolina High Schools, gathered at Halifax Mall near the state legislative building in support of House Bill 904. The bill would allow undocumented students who graduated from North Carolina High Schools to pay in-state rates for college.

WTVD talked with an unamed bill sponsor who said that he had been told the bill won’t pass this year.

On the possibility that legislators would not pass the bill, Moises Serrano of Yadkin County, a rally participant, was quoted as saying: “If not, we will remember come election time, it is an election year next year.” Serrano told WTVD that he and others had registered five thousand voters in Yadkin County.

Now did I get this right? This story was about “undocumented” immigrants, meaning they are not citizens and not qualified to vote – Right?

Jun

19

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While the legislature has done a pretty good job of cutting funding to private entities in the state budget, it was only a matter of time before groups that some would describe as “right of center” started to help themselves to dollars at the taxpayer funded public trough, more commonly known as the North Carolina State Budget.

While Parents for Educational Freedom North Carolina  (PEFNC) is a good organization, and it’s goals — expanded educational opportunities for parents and children — are honorable, I can’t support a provision in the proposed House Budget (see page 70-71) that provides PEFNC close to a half million dollars ($464,100) for a pilot program to develop rural charter schools in under-served counties.

It’s nothing personal PEFNC, it’s the principle.  This isn’t the first time Civitas has opposed providing government tax monies or other assistance to non profits. We have opposed providing public monies for the Public School Forum and the Teaching Fellows program.  We have even opposed money for the NC Symphony and for “grassroots arts” program. Providing taxpayer dollars to private organizations – no matter how public their name may sound — puts government in the position of picking winners and losers.  If It’s wrong for government to provide money for liberal non-profits and for community non-profits, it’s just as wrong for government to provide money for conservative non-profits.

I fully support the idea of developing rural charter schools. I can ‘t support providing tax dollars to PEFNC or any other private entity as the means for doing so.  Good idea;  wrong vehicle.

Jun

19

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The NC Senate had a third and final vote for their tax reform plan on the calendar for yesterday’s session, but it was removed by Sen. President Phil Berger shortly before the beginning of the session. Instead, Senate and House leaders met to begin negotiating the differences between the two plans, with the idea to find a compromise bill to introduce instead.

Per WRAL:

The Senate had been scheduled to give its final blessing to a deal that would have curtailed revenue growth by some $4 billion over the next four years by cutting income tax rates. Unlike others plans, including those put forward by the House and prior Senate proposals, it would not have extended the state sales tax but it did potentially tax Social Security income.

However, immediately before the Senate was to debate the bill today, Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger pulled it from consideration.

“We are talking with the House and the governor,” Berger told his colleagues.

After session, Berger said that he was leading negotiations on the Senate’s behalf.

Jun

18

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Yesterday State Superintendent of Public Instruction June Atkinson raised a few eye brows by suggesting teachers be exempt  from having to pay any state income taxes.  Her justification was to keep North Carolina teacher salaries competitive with surrounding states.  A press release from the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) on the subject  notes that  North Carolina teachers  currently rank 46^th in the nation in teacher pay.

While I’m in favor of eliminating state income taxes — for all North Carolinians,  the Superintendent’s comments miss the mark and cloud over important points.

First, DPI cites National Education Association salary survey data as the source of NC’s ranking (46th) .  However NEA data include salary only and not benefits or other forms of compensation.  It should also be noted the data does not account for regional differences in cost of living. While teachers in California or New Jersey may have higher salaries, a dollar spent in North Carolina can generally go farther than a dollar in other high cost of living states.

Second, some of the current financial difficulties teachers feel have been inflicted by an ill-fitting teacher salary schedule.  The current salary structure for teachers provides small step increases on the front end and more on the back end. (For a good analysis of the problems with NC’s Teacher Salary Schedule see here.) The current salary schedule also bases increases not on student performance but by years of  experience and credentials – two criteria that have no direct linkage to improved student performance.   The emphasis on time contributes to the unacceptable situation where  excellent teachers and average teachers are making the same salary.  That’s the sad state of affairs in many districts  and why we must find a better way to pay teachers; one that rewards performance and gives local school officials flexibility.  We all know excellent job performance needs to be rewarded. Local education officials need flexibility to attract and retain good teachers.  These realities have propelled  the inclusion of a Teacher Compensation Study in the Senate budget bill and hopefully the outlines for a new way to compensate teachers. That’s a far better long-term solution to resolving the current problems.

5

Jun

18

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Given all the other news coverage of Moral Mondays, you might have missed this interview with William Barber in the American Prospect. It’s worth reading for two reasons:

…In [Governor’s McCrory’s] first week in office, something happens that we deem immoral and extreme…We had to have a moral challenge because these policies they were passing, in rapid-fire, were constitutionally inconsistent, morally indefensible, and economically insane.

There’s a lot here in this section. Essentially, it sums up Barber’s justification for mass lawbreaking. So I’d like to pick this apart a little bit, sentence by sentence.

…Something happens that we deem immoral and extreme.

It’s funny how the plural pronoun can be used to gain credibility and distance at the same time. If you say, “I deemed this to be immoral and extreme,” your credibility comes under scrutiny. But if you say “We deemed this to be immoral and extreme,” suddenly you are both unassailable and disassociated from ownership or responsibility.

But it bears asking – who is Reverend Barber to “deem” anything? Is he an elected official? Was he elevated by the ballot box to a position of trust and authority? No – he was not.

We had to have a moral challenge because these policies they were passing…were constitutionally inconsistent, morally indefensible, and economically insane.

Apparently the majority of North Carolina does not agree, seeing as they picked these officials to enact exactly those policies.

Now, I’m not saying the majority is always right. As I’ve said earlier, people have a sacred right to dissent and protest in this country. But Barber is not just protesting. He is encouraging people to disrupt and break the system. It is one thing to protest in a city park, or on a public street. But that’s not what Moral Mondays are. Instead, protestors are intentionally breaking the law in order to arrested and bring more media attention to their cause. In the process, they are wreaking havoc on the Wake County criminal justice system.

Here’s another part of Barber’s interview that is worthy of closer scrutiny:

We just delivered a letter to the governor and the speaker saying, you’ve got the power to stop this. Just reconsider your attacks on Medicaid, voting rights, the unemployed, and the poor. If you don’t, then we will probably escalate in some ways – I’m not going to say how – because what they’re not going to do is live in peace while they hurt so many people and destroy so many lives.

That sounds awfully close to a threat. It sounds awfully close to coercion. It sounds awfully close to holding a metaphorical  gun to the heads of elected officials and forcing them to execute the will of an unelected and tiny minority  – or else.

To use one of the Rev. Barber’s favorite phrases: “That’s immoral. That’s extreme.”