Education

The god I knew as a young Southern Baptist didn't have much interest in the pursuit of petty politics. He - and this particular god was most definitely a he - seemed pretty comfortable with the rendering-unto-Caesar model, which suited me just fine.

Today that good-old god is dead, replaced by an angry patriarch hell-bent on punishing some of his children because they don't happen to be heterosexual. At least that's what you'd have to believe if you want to join his Wake County band of homophobes named Called 2 Action. According to the organization's own website, its roots are firmly planted in overt discrimination.

Come on Charles!, Lets get the story straight! You want to sit around and let all your fancy press people tell you how to act and what to say? Why don’t you come out and face Heath Shuler? Face him for the man you know he is and you are not! That sounds more like a robot than a man. And you call him irresponsible? How can you do that when you cant even get your facts straight? Like securing $10 million for the Engineering school At Western Carolina University? Funny ,I didn’t see you in the pictures or any comments of you!.

Press Center
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NATIONAL CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT CRISIS PROMPTS

This one is just too, too rich for satire. The story is in today's News and Observer.

After years of controversy over a proposed donation to the study of Western cultures, the John William Pope Foundation of Raleigh will give UNC-Chapel Hill $2.3 million, most of which will go to the football program.

The university announced the gift Thursday. It includes $2 million for an investment fund that will generate $100,000 a year to supplement the salaries of assistant football coaches.

Poor Puppetmaster. The mean old faculty at UNC didn't like the fact that he had too many strings on his original gift to study the glories of white old rich men. So instead of supporting intellectual integrity and furthering the highest ideals of public education, the Puppetmaster takes his money and punts!

The Pope Center for Higher Education, part of the tangled web that is the Art Pope Puppetshow, has relased a new "paper" that has one idea worth considering. I know that's a big surprise, but bear with me.

The paper, "The Overselling of Higher Education," was written by Executive Director George Leef and focuses on many of the common themes that dominates higher-education policy. Among the topics addressed in the paper is the common belief that the nation has entered a “knowledge economy,” where it’s important for nearly everyone to go to college. Leef contends that this idea is mistaken, but because it is so widely believed, colleges have been flooded with students who would have been better off if they had chosen to do something else.

Lance,
Just wanted to update something. I was just browseing around on the Quick Links where it has "Write your county Officals". Graham County needs a update to the following.

Commission Chairman - Randy Jordan - D

Commissioner- Dirk Cody - D

Commissioner- Mike Edwards - R (Edwards replaces V.Richard Stewart-R who had to step down with serious heart problems.

Dan

From MSNBC today there's a story out of Iran that seems eerily familiar.

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called Tuesday for a purge of liberal and secular teachers from the country's universities.

It reminds me of the right-wing rants spilling out of The Pope Center for Higher Education, such as this one on "leftist professors."

The N&O does a good job today reporting on The War on Education currently being fought between UNC campuses and We the People.

Seven tuition increases in eight years, including a 71 percent increase for North Carolinians from 1999 to 2004, raise serious questions about whether the UNC system has run afoul of the state's constitutional mandate for free tuition "as far as practicable," says a report by the N.C. Center for Public Policy Research.

I haven't seen the final report, and I don't know much about the NC Center for Public Policy Research, (except for the fact that they need a new website), but the N&O's preview suggests this work is pretty solid. And it certainly doesn't tapdance around the elephants in the room. According to the article, the Center's report:

concludes that the basic structure of public higher education is sound but in need of a tuneup. The study calls on UNC leaders to get better control of big-time college sports and rid the UNC system of rampant political influence.

Given the ethics moratorium passed in Raleigh last month, I don't hold out much hope for either, but I appreciate the Center's calls for sanity.

The election is still more than three months away and a lot can happen. Still, it's hard for Democrats not to feel optimistic. And the Bush Administration appears to be working their way through the stages of grief over the prospect of a Democratic Congress.

They've gotten to stage three: bargaining.

One of the first tasks of a Democratic Congress is to correct the utter failure in the constitutional duty of oversight of the Bush Administration. Oh, where would we start--the intelligence used to justify the invasion of Iraq, wiretapping without warrant by the National Security Administration, the use of "signing statements" to let the President pick and choose which laws he obeys, the intimidation of scientists and the censoring of federally-funded scientific research (a favorite of mine), the response to Katrina (another favorite).

NPR story: Public vs. Private School Report Spurs Controversy

tag: Things Conservatives don't want you to know.

Public schools perform favorably with private schools when students' income and socio-economic status are taken into account, according to a new report from the U.S. Education Department. The findings counter a popularly held notion, that private schools outperform public schools.

But the report has generated controversy due to what some call its overly low-key release, on a Friday evening. That spurred critics to charge that the Bush administration, long a supporter of private alternatives to public schools, was playing politics by burying data it doesn't like.

While this is mostly a local issue, the decisions have implications for taxpayers throughout the state. I just read in the N&O that UNC CH has picked an Executive Director for the Carolina North development, his name is John P. Evans.

I don't know much about Mr. Evans, so i will pluck heavily from the N&O, or you can go read the whole story yourself.

One of BlueNC's most endearing trolls wants to have a discussion about how much support Republicans have for public education. And the truth is, she and her Theocratic Minority are totally in favor of public education . . . as long as it's done just the way they want it. Take a look at the NC GOP platform and you'll see what I mean.

1. We believe in the value of maintaining a good system of public education. Good public education is impossible unless parents, not the state, have control of their children’s education.

Targator posted an analysis of the economic damage being done by Republicans to working families and students, all the while providing more tax breaks to the wealth. Today, the little Cherokee Sentinel picks up the story too. When small papers like the Sentinel run stories like this, you can see the beginning of the end of the Republican reign of error.

  

John Hood is back from vacation, but the rest didn't do much good. Today he's decided that the world of public education can't survive with his brilliant insights. At least in this particular case, he acknowledges that his opinions are uninformed and biased.

RALEIGH – Just about everyone has an opinion about how to improve education, and it’s usually an opinion passionately held and forcefully argued. Schools are the single-largest expenditure of state taxpayers’ funds. Educational mediocrity is the common denominator of many other social maladies. Most folks have spouses, siblings, parents, or other family members in the teaching profession. And everyone has been a student.

Today the rates on student loans are set to increase by over 2 percentage points. The huge jump will cost the average North Carolina college attendee an extra $2247 to $2705. The prime reason for this increase is neglect by the current administration and Congress. This is contrasted strongly with Clinton and Gore's strong committment to decreasing the burden of loans on students. (one of many examples can be found here). In contrast, the current administration has done absolutely nothing to help with college expenses as tuition and now loan rates have skyrocketed; in fact the Republican Congress and Administration cut $12 billion from the loan program.

Over on one of my blogs, the UNCG Campus Watch, I have posted a working resolution I have drafted and I am thinking of submitting to UNCG's Student Senate, where I am currently Chairman of the Legislative Committee. The resolution deals with the situation regarding counting out of state student as in state students. It is a move that will eventually cost the People of North Carolina more that $20 million annually, once the provision is fully implemented. I blogged on this here at BlueNC on Sunday.

I'm perfectly aware that many people don't see Student Government as something that can actually create change, but it is one small way in which to make the voice of students known to the University, the Board of Governors, the General Assembly and others.