As of July 23, North Carolina law prohibits cities, counties and state institutions from relocating any state-owned monument, statue or “object of remembrance” even if it is on city or county property. Work on the bill began many months ago amidst growing public demand for removal of monuments to the Confederacy and racist heroes. Calls for removal of monuments have grown since the Charleston, SC murders. Rather than having open and intelligent discussion of the concerns, legislators made change nearly impossible by passing a law that denies local governments the authority to respond to the will of their citizens. Continue reading SHOULD OUR FUTURE BE A HOSTAGE TO HISTORY?
Tag Archives: republican
WILL LOSING IN COURT HELP WIN ELECTIONS?
On the horizon of America’s sometimes bizarre political landscape are two Supreme Court decisions with unusual implications. Most conservatives and Republicans want the Court to rule that states can ban same-sex marriage and that Obama Care can’t subsidize the cost of health insurance in states that haven’t set up their own insurance exchanges. Most liberals and Democrats are wishing for the opposite. It may be that the political fortunes of the two parties will be better if they lose these cases than if they win. If Democrats and Liberals win both cases, then Republicans can continue to demonize the health care law for its imperfections and complain about activist judges who overturned the “will of the people” by allowing same-sex marriage. Republicans seem well prepared for losing in court, but not for the consequences of winning. They have no plan for delivering affordable health care to low and middle-income Americans. It isn’t free. It is a fact that many people of modest means will suffer and die without health care if there is no tax-funded means to help pay for it. Continue reading WILL LOSING IN COURT HELP WIN ELECTIONS?
DOING THAT COULD MAKE YOU BLIND
A South Carolina man is learning that there are some things that feel good at the time but, yes, they can make you go blind. Here’s a recap of his story, much of it from the Charlotte Observer. Luis Lang was self-employed with a good income and a 3300 square foot house worth more than $300,000. He knew that the law (Obama Care) required him to buy health insurance, but it felt good to spend the money on other things. Continue reading DOING THAT COULD MAKE YOU BLIND
Hoosier Hysteria Over Religious Freedom
It is difficult to overestimate either the entertainment value of Indiana’s new “Religious Freedom Restoration” law or the damage that it has already done. With the support of religious conservatives, Hoosier Republicans have swept away the authority of all government agencies to”…substantially burden a person’s exercise of religion…” The law allows anyone who thinks their free exercise of religion has been impaired to receive attorney fees and compensatory damages if they prevail in court. Randolph County legislators Pat Hurley and Allen McNeill are sponsoring a similar law in North Carolina. Continue reading Hoosier Hysteria Over Religious Freedom
Will Obama’s Iran Strategy Succeed?
Since the end of WW I, American and European military powers have intervened in the Middle East by re-drawing national boundaries, overthrowing governments, supporting the establishment of Israel, and by fighting wars over oil, corporate profits, and terrorism.
Despite (or because of) the efforts of twelve American Presidents from Franklin Roosevelt to George Bush the region has religious civil war, two nuclear armed states (Pakistan and Israel), and multiple nations unable to govern themselves. The anarchy has metastasized into northern Africa and southern Asia where residents of failed nations are easy prey for religious radicals and terrorists.
President Obama is trying something new and there is at least a glimmer of hope; but influential American and Israeli politicians are attacking the new strategies rather than helping them succeed. The principles of the President’s strategy are understood and supported by our allies but American and Israeli right-wingers seem to see only military solutions. Continue reading Will Obama’s Iran Strategy Succeed?
WHY WOULD RENEE ELLMERS ELIMINATE EPA?
Congresswoman Renee Ellmers (R – NC) wants to eliminate the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the federal agency that sets and enforces standards for safe water and air. She should justify her goal. We need congressional representatives who think carefully and speak wisely about such important matters. Her statement seems reckless, and if she can’t justify it then she does not belong in our Congress. Continue reading WHY WOULD RENEE ELLMERS ELIMINATE EPA?
FRACKING DANGERS ARE WORSE THAN WE THOUGHT
North Carolina’s Republican Governor and a nearly unanimous majority of Republican lawmakers have recklessly dashed ahead to allow hydraulic fracking for production of natural gas. They have ignored the growing body of evidence that fracking imperils our health and the safety of our air and water. They missed the “look before you leap” lesson and took all of us along when they jumped into fracking. Continue reading FRACKING DANGERS ARE WORSE THAN WE THOUGHT
REPUBLICAN SOCIALIZED HEALTHCARE?
The following words are from House Bill 1181, passed by the North Carolina House and endorsed by Governor McCrory. “It is the intent of the General Assembly to transform the State’s Medicaid program from a traditional fee-for-service system into a system that provides budget predictability for the taxpayers of this State while ensuring quality care to those in need.” Translation: Instead of paying for whatever health care is used, they want to budget a fixed amount and make doctors and hospitals absorb any additional costs. They want doctors to save money by keeping patients healthy more so than treating them after they are sick. If their plan works everyone wins. If it fails, our poorest citizens will bear the burden. Continue reading REPUBLICAN SOCIALIZED HEALTHCARE?
COMMON CORE STANDARDS
Apparently taking their cue from right wing talk radio and Fox News pundits, leaders of the North Carolina Legislature have begun an assault on the Common Core Standards for education. Some want to repeal the standards which our school systems have been working to implement since they were adopted in 2010 by you know who – the North Carolina Legislature.
What better way to finish demoralizing underpaid and underappreciated educators than to give them the monumental job of organizing to achieve specific goals and then, at the last minute, repeal the goals? The Republicans in charge at the legislature often argue that government should be more efficient and productive, like a successful business. Today it is those legislators, not the educators who need lessons in successful business practices. The idea that we can greatly improve (or damage) education by adopting a set of standards is foolishness. It is the actions taken to achieve the goals that will make a difference. As Russell Ackoff, a renowned professor from the Wharton School of Business put it, “The only problems that have simple solutions are simple problems. The only managers with simple problems are those with simple minds.”
For many years we have known that the educational achievement of American students is lagging behind the achievement of students in many other developed nations. Since public education is largely a responsibility of states, not the federal government, the National Governor’s Association commissioned a project to study the situation and make recommendations. It was strongly supported by governors from both parties and the funding was mostly from the private sector – especially from businesses and foundations which were concerned that American graduates were not prepared for the jobs of the future (or even the present). Educators, psychologists, business leaders and other qualified people worked for years to produce the Common Core Standards which were then adopted voluntarily by 46 states. Only after this was done did the federal government begin to use the standards too.
The Common Core Standards specify very little about curriculum (books, teaching techniques etc.) In fact, the standards anticipate that there will be variance across the country in that regard, and that there may be variance from one classroom to another based the unique styles of individual teachers or the needs of students. If there is to be standardization of curriculum or teaching techniques, it would be done by states or school districts.
How should those of us who are not educators think of the standards? I see them as mileposts for each student to pass on the journey of preparation for successful employment after high school or for college. That was also the goal of the National Governor’s Association and of the private organizations that paid for much of the research on which the standards are based.
One state, Kentucky, has led the way in implementing the standards and more recently they have begun testing to measure how they are doing. The bad news is that their educational performance still lags behind other nations. The very promising news is that in two years their test scores rose 2 percent while their high school graduation rate rose 6 percent. It is too soon to attribute that progress to the common core standards but certainly they can take pride in the achievement.
Edward Deming, who is often credited with introducing scientific process improvement as a business practice, said “Management by numerical goal is an attempt to manage without knowledge of what to do.” It is vital for legislators to understand that. The Common Core Standards provide a yardstick with which we can measure progress. They should be used for planning and improvement, not for appraisal of individual performance. Repealing them will leave educators no generally accepted and standardized measurement and will take away their ability to compare results from various school districts and teaching methods – leaving us in a situation where policy changes will be based on opinion rather than data. Replacing them with state standards will take away our ability to compare our results with other states and will present new opportunities for politicians to insert their personal biases into educational policy. That is the opposite of good business practices.
Rather than taking the goalposts off the field, the legislature can be most helpful by doing its own job – not the jobs of the educators. There is massive evidence that children, especially low income children, do best in nations that provide high quality public pre-schools. The legislature should study how best to create and fund that service. Many legislators (in both parties) want performance-based pay for educators. If that is the case, legislators and school boards must provide management education for whoever will do the performance appraisals and the ongoing communication and coaching throughout the year. Successful performance appraisals don’t surprise people – they are merely summaries of discussions that have been ongoing. They are based on multiple job expectations, not on the results of a single test.
The most critical factor in business success is hiring the right people. That means that we need to provide adequate salaries. We have some great teachers who are terribly underpaid. We have lost some great teachers who had to leave their chosen profession in order to adequately support their families. The legislature can help by funding salaries comparable to professions requiring similar levels of education, skill and stress.
So, legislature, what’s it going to be? Will you choose a businesslike approach to improving quality or more tampering based on the opinions of talk show hosts?