Shining light on Bev Perdue's education positions

According to my pastor, somebody famous once said that when we fight against darkness, we only have to bring in some light. I wish that principle was applied to the ads on television. I wrote last weekend about seeing the ad that questioned Bev Perdue's position on education over the course of her public life, and how I went to the library to search newspaper archives on the internet about it. I found a handful of articles that seemed to tell a different story, that Perdue has been a lifelong supporter of education from pre-school through grade school, through college and throughout your lifetime. And I posted some clips from them.

Then, when a friend suggested that I look at the YouTube website for more information, I did that too, and I posted those links this week.

Then, over the course of the week, I've found that two things are true: the first about the difference between what WE say and what WE do as citizens, and the second is about how addictive the internet is when you learn a new trick.

Here's the first: WE as citizens and good people say we want our leaders to do good work, to lead positively. But how many of us take the time to look at the record and appreciate when they actually do what we need from them? My guess is, not many. The notes I posted about Perdue's positions on education went floating by like pine straw down the mill stream. Instead, we are drawn to negative ads like moths to flame, and we even make sport of it, weighing and measuring the negative ads for effectiveness. It's interesting, which items draw a lot of attention and which ones don't.

Here's the second thing I learned this week. The new trick I learned, looking up newspaper archives at the library, is addictive. Long story short, it got good to me. I figured out how to broaden your search to get more information.

So, in the interest of bringing in a little more light, I collected another list of clips to share. In fact, I'm breaking the list in two, because there are a lot of them. I'll be interested to see whether these float like more pine straw down the mill stream, or if we really want negative ads and conflict rather than positive information.

Like before, I put these in the order they were published starting in 2000:

On March 31, 2000, Perdue told the Winston-Salem Journal she was keeping her "eye on the prize" in promoting education.

Most candidates said they support North Carolina's ABCs of Public Education accountability program, although many said that the program should be modified.
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Perdue , a New Bern legislator who helped introduce the legislation creating the ABCs, said that the plan remains a "work in progress."

"You've got to keep your eye on the prize," she told the educators. "That prize is that, with the ABCs, every child in North Carolina can learn and can succeed. . . . There has to be a long-term commitment to the ABCs. The minute you see that commitment washing away . . . y'all need to come up to Raleigh and fight with battle armor."

In a letter to the editor published in the Chapel Hill Herald on April 27, 2000, Teresa Williams of Chapel Hill wrote,

Now serving as a state senator from the third district and co-chairman of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, Perdue has demonstrated leadership in shepherding through the General Assembly such important measures as Smart Start. She has fought to raise teacher pay to the national average, to raise teacher standards and to raise student performance. She has worked hard to maintain essential funding to public schools that could have been diverted to other causes. Ranked the sixth-most effective senator by the bipartisan N.C. Center for Public Policy Research, Beverly Perdue has earned a reputation as an intelligent, fair, energetic and capable leader.

Can't get more positive and pro-education than that.

On September 17, 2000, the Durham Herald-Sun published this in an article about Perdue:

"My parents really believed that education was the great equalizer in life and believed that if you can get some education , then you can be anything you want," she said.
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Perdue also started her professional life in education , teaching kindergarten and ninth and 12th grades while her husband attended law school. They needed the extra money, she said, but her own education was never far from her mind.

As a child in the 1950s, Perdue watched as her mother sat at the kitchen table in their home in Grundy, Va., and worked on her high school education . And no GED program was available then at a local community college. Her mother completed course work through the mail with a company called American Home Schools and earned the diploma for its own sake, for knowledge, Perdue said.

"It was just something important to her, being the best she could be," she said.
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Perdue moved to New Bern in the early 1970s, upon the suggestion of her brother, a Navy doctor stationed there. She finished her Ph.D. in administration at the University of Florida at Gainesville while her husband attended law school in Florida. Her degree landed her in a job as director of aging services for a gerontology center. She was in charge of administering a $1 million grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to explore and increase in-home care techniques for the elderly.

Her frustration with the federal social services and health-care bureaucracy convinced her to run for office, she said, and she won a House term in 1987.

The same paper quoted Perdue on October 1 naming education as her top priority as a state leader:

WINSTON-SALEM - The two former teachers who want to be North Carolina's next lieutenant governor said Saturday their shared priority is improving the state's educational system - though they disagree on how it should be done.

"Education - there is no other priority until those needs have been met," state Sen. Beverly Perdue said during a debate with state Sen. Betsy Cochrane at the annual meeting of the North Carolina Associated Press News Council. Asked to name the top priority in writing the next state budget, Perdue , a Democrat from New Bern, focused on school-related spending, such as raising teacher salaries and the expenses related to cutting class size and accurate performance tests in the fifth grade to stop social promotion.

The Charlotte Observer published on October 8, 2000, a short profile, then part of a question-and-answer with Perdue:

Perdue has served in the House and Senate since 1987. She co-chairs the budget-writing Senate appropriations committee and ranks sixth in effectiveness.
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What is your top priority?

Perdue : " Education , always education . We've come so far in North Carolina helping our schools work better ... So I believe for the first time we're absolutely on the right track holding teachers and students responsible. The accountability model has identified kids in our schools at risk ... You have to have the resources in place to help those children to succeed."

Given that the lieutenant governor has little real power, how would you expand your influence?

Perdue : "I don't perceive the lieutenant governor's office to have limited power. I believe the office is the absolute function of the person who sits in the chair. I bring to the role experience and leadership and the ability to build consensus... And I will absolutely be involved and be a leader on education ..."

And a week later, Jack Betts wrote in the same paper about his observations of Perdue:

She earned a masters in community college education and a doctorate in gerontology in Florida before moving to New Bern and setting up a ground-breaking program for the elderly at Craven Memorial Hospital.

Perdue was elected to the House in 1987 and to the Senate in 1991, where she quickly moved into more powerful positions. As part of an Eastern N.C. cadre of leaders with strong ties to President Pro Tem Marc Basnight, she has been particularly influential in environmental policy and has been one of three powerful co-chairs of the appropriations committee.

"Anyone who knows me knows that I'm aggressive and hard working," she says. "As lieutenant governor I'd be as strong a voice as North Carolina has ever had for public education ."
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"People don't want a good old boy or a good old girl, they just want someone who'll move the ball forward," Perdue says.

Ain't that the truth.

Then came time for newspaper endorsements, since 2000 was an election year. In announcing their choices, every newspaper that picked Perdue emphasized her record on education. The News & Observer wrote on October 22,

The lieutenant governor is the state Senate's presiding officer, a role that allows a fair amount of influence over debate. The officeholder also has an important voice in educational matters, as a member of the state Board of Education and Board of Community Colleges. And of course, the lieutenant governor needs to be qualified to serve as governor, since he or she assumes the governorship if it becomes vacant.
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Perdue , 53, is an articulate leader in the General Assembly, a skilled political player (co-chair of the powerful Appro-priations Committee) who also happens to hold a doctorate in administration from the University of Florida and has experience as a teacher.

Perdue has wielded considerable power behind the scenes and as a budget-writer, but says she is committed to keeping the legislative process open to the people. She also persuasively supports a movement born late in the Hunt administration - to bridge the gap between "the two North Carolinas," one urban and enjoying long-term growth, the other rural and lagging in economic development and the jobs that go with it.
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Regarding Smart Start, Hunt's signature early childhood program, Perdue has been steadfast in support. She strongly opposes private school vouchers as a drain on public funds.
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Beverly Perdue... seems more likely to bring to the state's second highest office strong, positive ideas to try to direct state government in ways that help more people, at all stages of life, make those lives better.

Two days later, the Charlotte Observer said it would

...recommend Sen. Beverly Perdue because of her progressive outlook and her experience in recent sessions as a key leader in the Senate, over which she would preside as lieutenant governor.

Sen. Perdue, who holds a doctorate in public administration, has been a mover and shaker in the legislature since leaving a job as director of geriatrics at Craven Regional Medical Center to enter politics in 1986. In the Senate she has become known as an advocate of public schools, of programs for the elderly and on children's health issues. She also became an expert on water quality issues after the toxic dinoflagellate pfiesteria was discovered, and was an architect of the Clean Water Responsibility Act.

Sen. Perdue proposes to be an aggressive advocate for public schools, particularly in providing the additional resources for under-performing schools and for remediation of students who don't make the grade. She objects to voucher programs that would allow children to attend private schools because they would not address the public schools' problems, but does favor more flexibility for families to decide what schools their children can attend within their school districts. She would support a state lottery if a public referendum were held.

...we believe Sen. Perdue 's vigor, determination to pursue change and commitment to push aggressively for more resources for public education better serve the state's long-range interests.

A reporter for the Greensboro News & Record wrote on October 30, 2000, that Perdue

has a more specific education plan in mind. She would focus on underachieving students and the often poorly funded schools they attend. She wants to get additional tutoring and other help to elementary students who have fallen behind in reading and mathematics.

``I believe you could end up helping 50, 60, even 80 percent of these kids,'' she says.

And on November 8, after the election, the Charlotte Observer attributed her victory to a long-time commitment to education. It wrote,

During the campaign, she talked less about making history than about issues. Topping the list for Perdue, a former teacher, is education. She campaigned on the promise to focus on underachieving students and the often poorly funded schools they attend.

Then she went to work.

In May, 2001, Perdue spoke to the graduating class at Fayettevill Technical Community College, and the Fayetteville Observer covered it in the May 18 edition. They wrote,

Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue delivered the commencement address. Perdue emphasized the value of a diploma and the desire to explore opportunities through education . “Today is, most likely, the tomorrow you have been waiting for,” Perdue said. “You've met the goal you have set for yourself.”

Perdue told the graduates that the world is changing and that the jobs they trained for may no longer exist in the next 10 years. She urged the graduates to continue moving ahead and to further their education . “Your decision to pursue lifelong learning is an important one,” Perdue said. “This community college will be here for you forever.”

Perdue also offered some advice to the graduates. She told them never to stop asking questions, to continue seeking solutions and never to let the world around them go unexplored. “Hard work is the answer to success,” Perdue said. “You'll be working harder that you ever worked before. Do something you love and love those around you.”

The same reporter caught up with Perdue two months later and found out she was taking advantage of online learning herself. In the July 26, 2001 edition, the reporter wrote,

Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue on Wednesday emphasized the importance of using information technology in classrooms. Perdue said technology has given her the opportunity to learn Spanish.

“I'm willing to learn Spanish over the Internet,” Perdue told people attending the North Carolina Distance Learning Alliance Conference. “I don't have time to take a course at a community college. Even for someone my age, it gives me the opportunity to pursue an education .”
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“The General Assembly is doing all they can, but the time for doing is passed,” Perdue said. “Legislators must understand the importance of technology. We don't want to penalize the public schools and community colleges in North Carolina.”

Perdue said distance learning is the key to closing the “digital divide” between rural and urban areas of North Carolina.

“It makes it possible for people who can't make it to a community college campus to take courses at home or from their office,” Perdue said. “The information highway is a critical way to address these issues.”

Perdue said that in 1993, when she was a second-term senator, few people listened when she discussed the advancements of technology and how it could be used in education. “We got into the game early and North Carolina was a landmark state,” Perdue said. “But the cost of implementing technology in classrooms was such an issue.”

Perdue urged those at the conference to contact their legislators and make them understand that distance learning has helped to educate, train and prepare students across the state and can be used as a tool for economic development. “Regardless of where they live, these children deserve a chance,” Perdue said.

Sounds like someone who supports lifelong learning.

Further to the east one month later, Perdue visited Pactolus Elementary School to learn about its literacy program. The Greenville Daily Reflector wrote on August 21, 2001,

Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue recognized Pactolus Elementary School on Monday for its achievement with a nationally known literacy development program. Perdue met with teachers and toured several classrooms Monday morning to learn more about the Literacy Collaborative, a program developed by Ohio State University to teach reading and writing.

The school's work with the project recently earned it honors from the U.S. Department of Education for school reform and improved student achievement. "We're looking for a silver bullet, and I pray this is it," Perdue said while presenting the school with an achievement certificate from her office. "If it works at a school like this and it's changing student lives, we need to spread it throughout the state."

Perdue later said she would like to see a study to determine if the program could be applied statewide. "It seems it doesn't take a tremendous amount of resources beyond the initial investment in training and curriculum," Perdue said.
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Perdue later praised the program during a speech before the University City Kiwanis Club. "You don't pick on (students) for not being the best; you help them become the best," she said.

Perdue touted the advances North Carolina schools have made because of its testing and accountability programs but acknowledged more work is needed. "It's not all perfect. Every classroom isn't what we want it to be for our children, but it's getting better."

Later in the fall, Perdue was focused on improving low-performing schools, according to the News & Observer on November 1:

North Carolina is making an unprecedented push this fall to help high schools struggling with low achievement, but the primary tool it is using -- special assistance teams sent into each school -- has a weak record for turning failing schools into successful ones.
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High schools might need more intensive help, said members of the State Board of Education on Wednesday after an update on low-performing schools.

"It's our responsibility to fix these schools," Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue said. "We know they're failing, and it behooves us to fix them."

To begin 2003, Perdue herself drafted a column that ran in the Fayetteville Observer on February 26, tying North Carolina's economic growth to... education. She wrote:

Continuing bad news on the state budget, on unemployment, and plant closings reminds us almost daily that there is an economic crisis in North Carolina. The budget surpluses, labor shortages, and rising investment of the 1990s seem a distant memory. For many families dependent on their paychecks, communities dependent on the tax base, and recent graduates looking for opportunities, the economic crisis is intensified. The 66,000 jobs lost last year were jobs belonging to real people with real families.
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The Economic Development Board meets again on March 1 to continue its work. I recommend that the board focus on immediate actions to address short-term needs to improve our competitiveness in its May report. Then, in May, begin building on that foundation to address the long-term issues and to develop a carefully crafted economic development strategy.

...[N]ew industries will drive our state's competitiveness -- life sciences and biotechnology, information technology applied to whole new areas, and such unfamiliar sounding technologies as photonics and genomics. In this globally competitive world economy, we can only prosper through technology and innovation, through the highest-quality education in our public schools, and through an unwavering dedication to excellence in our community colleges and universities.

The good news is that North Carolina has faced and conquered such challenges in the past. Those victories required bold and visionary leadership from our business, educational and political leaders, building a consensus for action and maintaining a long-term commitment. Conquering the challenges of 2002 will require the same dedication of purpose.

On March 26, the Durham Herald-Sun wrote about Perdue's visit to NCCU's biotechnology institute, where she reinforced what she'd written in her column.

An advocate of biotechnology education at all grade levels, Perdue said she sees NCCU and UNC-Charlotte as leaders in developing courses and laboratory training that will meet the demand for employees in the field, particularly among minorities. "Charlotte and Central have a vision, they know where they need to go," she said. "Especially as we grow African-American kids who understand the future is brain power."

That's three years' worth of articles (2000, 2001, 2002) that suggest to the average citizen that Bev Perdue supports education as a public leader, and ties education to North Carolina's growth and prosperity.

But there's plenty more "light" to bring in, for anyone interested in reading it.