Charters have Privileges Public Schools are Not Allowed

SB 480 has passed the crossover deadline and will head to the House. If passed there, it will make it illegal for any employee of a local board of education to politic while on the clock. Teachers, principals, teacher's aides will not be able to send home info on bond referendum or any legislation affecting schools.

However, charter schools are free to do so. Charter schools can use school facilities and time to call for support for legislation. And I have seen kids who receive vouchers actually lobbying at the Legislative Building. The following has gone out from Voyager Academy to its parents. Sauce for the goose is no longer sauce for the gander.

Tweedalee, Tweedalee, Tweet...

Tweet du jour:

Colin Campbell ‏@RaleighReporter Apr 22
Sen. Apodaca, rules chairman: "I paid a lot more taxes last week than I did the year before." #ncpol #ncga

Abortion

I'm in the crowded House Gallery this morning, waiting for the discussion and vote on HB 465 requiring a 72 hour waiting period prior to actually having an abortion.

Whither Kansas, & Will NC Follow?

“Hope you’ll visit us in Kansas. We need your sales tax revenue.”

So said Annie McKay, Executive Director of of the Kansas Center for Economic Growth at yesterday’s Crucial Conversation held by NC Policy Watch. The room was packed with North Carolinians concerned for our state’s financial health in the wake of drastic tax changes enacted by NCGA leadership.

Our Schools Are Saved!

At last! Help for our ailing public school system!

Reps. Justin Burr & John Torbett have filed HB 858 to collect $500,000 from lottery proceeds to create funding for suitable portraits of George Washington for every public school that requests one from the governor's office!

SECTION 1.(a) There is established in the Office of the Governor for the
2015-2017 fiscal biennium a grant program to provide funding to the State's public schools for the purchase of suitable framed portraits of George Washington so that each public school that requests funding may display the likeness of the first United States President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces in a dignified location and manner so as to educate students about one of the most important figures in the nation's history and an enduring model of character, leadership, and civic responsibility.

Not enough money for textbooks, teachers, teachers' aides, computers, copy paper, but Thank, Goodness, there will be pictures… excuse me, Portraits, of George Washington for our children to gaze upon in their schools.

Taxes, the Price of Civilization

Those pesky, liberal universities are at it again, as a doctoral thesis reveals that Americans don’t mind paying taxes after all!

In national surveys, over 95 percent of Americans agree with the statement, “It is every American’s civic duty to pay their fair share of taxes,” and more than half see taxpaying as “very patriotic.” One man from Ohio called it a responsibility to “the Founding Fathers.” A former Marine said taxpaying is “the cost of being an American,” while a man from California said tax avoidance is the equivalent of “shorting the country.”

Discrimination vs. destruction

Gene Nichol's letter to the editor today (N&O) is an important read. Some excerpts follow.

First, the array of possible claims in the name of religious freedom is, literally, boundless. The Supreme Court has entertained cases asserting faith-based commands to engage in polygamy, discriminate on the basis of race, smoke peyote and conduct live animal slaughter or to refuse to enter the draft, pay taxes, contribute to Social Security, obtain a photo ID, go to school past the eighth grade and wear the prescribed military uniform while on duty.

Constitutional deformation coming soon!

Senator Ralph Hise, ( District 47 -Madison, McDowell, Mitchell, Polk, Rutherford, Yancey) has introduced Joint Resolution 507:

... under the authority of Article V of the Constitution of the United States,
the North Carolina General Assembly has applied to the United States Congress to call a
convention of the states to amend the United States Constitution and adopt a countermand
amendment to authorize the states, upon a vote of three-fifths of the state legislatures, to nullify
and repeal a federal statute, executive order, judicial decision, regulatory decision by a federal
government agency, or government mandate imposed on the states by law that adversely affects
the interests of the states, in order to properly exercise the states' constitutional authority to
check federal power, preserve state sovereignty, and protect the rights of the states and the
people….

Religious Freedom or Religious Dictatorship?

Connecticut, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Virginia, South Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Idaho and Indiana.

What do these states have in common? The Religious Freedom Restoration Act, legalizing discrimination.

The American religious theocracy is on the march. When will those who value freedom of religion stand up together and say, No!

Welcome the highest bidder!

Have we got a deal for you! The Dorthea Dix property back at NCGA!
Some people simply can't let the city of Raleigh have nice things.

A bill filed late Thursday by three Republican N.C. senators would put the 308-acre Dorothea Dix property up for bid – likely revoking a deal reached between Raleigh leaders and Gov. Pat McCrory to create a park.

BlueNC

Vicki Boyer's blog