McCrory outlines education reform goals


Photo: Governor’s office

Gov. Pat McCrory on Wednesday laid out his guidelines for education reform in North Carolina.

McCrory and Senior Education Adviser Eric Guckian outlined their priorities at a meeting of the governor’s education cabinet, comprised of the state superintendent of public instruction, chair of the State Board of Education, presidents of the community college and UNC systems, as well as the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.

According to a statement from the governor’s office, McCrory’s education goals include:

Prosperity and Jobs for Graduates – The governor’s plan calls for more students earning associates and bachelor degrees from the state’s community colleges and universities. It also calls for an increase of students attaining more industry-approved certificates and degrees. The governor also wants a commitment from businesses to hire more North Carolina graduates.

A Rewarding Career for Teachers and Principals – This goal calls for innovative ways to significantly increase teacher salaries as well as devise meaningful rewards for the most productive educators. On the assessment side, the plan envisions fewer, but more meaningful classroom assessments and tests. It also wants more comprehensive measures, beyond student performance, of teacher and principal effectiveness.

A Joy of Reading and Math for Every Child –Every student must be a proficient reader by the third grade and early education options are key in reaching that goal. This goal calls for meaningful and reliable measures of student literacy progress to be in place as well as teacher support.

Excellent Innovative Learning Options for Families – This goal supports the expansion of high quality charter schools with a focus on academic excellence and diverse student populations. It also envisions a digital E-Learning agenda that can be accessed by students from early learning to adulthood.

Cost Effectiveness for Taxpayers – This goal envisions a shared budget for some or all education initiatives for the next legislative session. It also looks to reward and replicate effective education practices while eliminating those that are unproductive.

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N.C. House moves to end tax checkoff for political parties

The N.C. House voted on Monday to end a checkoff option on the state income tax form that directs public funds to political parties.

By a 76-36 margin, the Republican-controlled House passed H951, with Rep. Joe Sam Queen of Haywood County and Rep. Paul Tine of Dare County the only Democrats to join a unified GOP majority in voting for the measure.

The N.C. Political Parties Financing Fund was first implemented in 1975 by the then Democratic-controlled N.C. General Assembly in the wake of the Watergate scandal. The option allows state taxpayers to redirect $3 – or $6 for a married couple filing jointly – from the state’s general revenue fund to be given to officially recognized political parties for approved purposes.

Taxpayers can choose which party will receive the funds they designate. If left unspecified, the funds are split among the political parties according to their respective share of voter registration in North Carolina.

While speaking in favor of the bill he coauthored, Rep. Dennis Riddell (R-Alamance) noted that the checkoff funds are available only to political parties that have met the state’s ballot-access threshold, which to-date are the Republican, Democratic and Libertarian parties.

“There are some other parties, smaller, but with people equally as devoted to them as we are to our respective parties here in this chamber, but they are prevented from accessing these funds,” Riddell said. “I don’t think that it’s the job of state government to be soliciting money on behalf of political parties.”

Rep. Kelly Alexander (D-Mecklenburg) argued that the checkoff option is still relevant and needed to protect the integrity of the state’s election process.

“This measure first became law shortly after the Watergate fiasco, when people were concerned about the undue influence of money in politics. And people are still concerned about the undue influence of money in politics,” Alexander said.

According to the fiscal note on the bill, doing away with the checkoff option for political parties will return an estimated $2 million to the state’s general fund.

The bill now goes to the Republican-controlled N.C. Senate for consideration.

Full audio of Monday’s debate over the political party checkoff option can be heard with the player below, courtesy of VoterRadio.com.


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McCrory issues statement on passing of N.C. Gov. Jim Holshouser

Former North Carolina Gov. James E. Holshouer passed away Monday morning in Pinehurst at the age of 78 after a prolonged illness.

Rob Christensen of the News & Observer has a wonderfully written obituary on Gov. Holshouser, detailing how he broke decades of one-party Democratic dominance in North Carolina and paved the way for the current GOP success in Raleigh.

In 1972, Holshouser became the first Republican governor elected in North Carolina since 1896, and the youngest in state history.

Holshouser served on Pat McCrory’s transition team after the 2012 election as the former Charlotte mayor became the first Republican in 20 years to occupy the governor’s office. On Sunday afternoon, McCrory visited the Holshouser family to pay his respects.

On Monday morning, McCrory released a statement on Holshouser’s passing.

“Compassion was the foundation of Governor Holshouser’s life. He was a champion of education. He made health care available in counties that didn’t have doctors. And he provided historic professional opportunities to women and minorities,” McCrory said. “North Carolina is a better place because of his leadership and heart.”

“James Holshouser was more than a friend and mentor, he was a genuine leader,” McCrory added. “His passing is not only a loss for the state of North Carolina, but for the countless number of people who were personally touched by his guidance and kindness. Ann and I will have the Holshouser family in our prayers.”

Gov. Holshouser passed away on the 52nd anniversary of his marriage to his wife, Pat.

 

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Poll: Voters oppose N.C. legislature’s budget proposals

With the N.C. House and Senate entering negotiations over a roughly $20.6 billion state budget, a new poll finds neither chamber’s spending plan popular among North Carolina voters.

Forty-nine percent of voters oppose the House’s proposed budget, with just 19 percent supportive of the plan, according to a survey from Public Policy Polling. Meanwhile, 50 percent of voters oppose the Senate’s budget and only 17 percent favor this spending proposal.

The Republican-controlled legislature also suffers in the court of public opinion, with 56 percent of voters disapproving of the job being done by state lawmakers. Democratic voters are especially displeased with the General Assembly, with just 10 percent giving that body a positive rating, while 20 percent of independents approve of the legislature. Slightly more Republican voters – 40 percent – disapprove of the legislature than the 36 percent who approve.

Neither party in the legislature is popular. Legislative Democrats have an approval rating of 35 percent, while legislative Republicans have an approval rating of 36 percent. However, Democrats lead Republicans in a generic legislative ballot, 48-41 percent.

The poll also finds voter opposition to several legislative proposals. A bill that would allow guns on college campuses and do away with handgun permits is opposed by 66 percent of voters overall, including 50 percent of Republicans.

A rare positive note in the poll is the strong support for a bill that requires teaching cursive handwriting in North Carolina schools, with 72 percent of voters in favor of the measure.

Republican Gov. Pat McCrory’s approval rating has taken a tumble, according to the survey, with 45 percent of voters approving of his job performance and 39 percent disapproving. That net approval rating of plus 6 percent is down from the net approval of 26 percent when McCrory took office in January.

“A big reason why McCrory won so easily last fall was a lot of crossover support from Democrats but that’s dissipating,” pollster Tom Jensen writes in his analysis of the poll.

Just 26 percent of Democrats approve of the governor, while McCrory continues to be popular within his party, with 71 percent of Republicans giving him positive marks. Among the crucial demographic of independent voters, 46 percent approve of McCrory’s job performance and 34 percent disapprove, while 19 percent are unsure.

The statewide poll of 500 North Carolina voters was conducted June 12-14 and has a margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points.

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Tax reform passes initial vote in N.C. Senate

The N.C. Senate tentatively approved changes to a House tax reform measure by a vote of 30-17 on Thursday, following a two-hour debate that saw some fissures within the Republican majority.

A final vote will come Tuesday, after which the bill will go back to the House and could end up in a conference committee to negotiate differences between the two bodies.

Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger (R-Rockingham) touted his chamber’s alterations to the bill passed earlier this week in the House as a compromise designed to modernize “a tax code that is sorely in need of updating and reform because it’s based on a model that dates back to the 1930s.”

“What we have is a bill that I believe represents a significant effort towards comprehensive tax reform and represents a real compromise in terms of some of the issues that were out there,” Berger said.

The proposal would create a flat personal income tax rate of 5.4 percent as of Jan. 1, 2014, then drop it again to 5.25 percent in 2015, below the 5.9 percent passed by the House, with a zero tax rate for the first $15,000 of income for a married couple filing jointly. It would eliminate all exemptions, deductions and credits aside from the child tax credit.

While the original House plan aimed to lower the corporate income tax rate from the current 6.9 percent to 5.4 percent over five years, the Senate plan would eliminate corporate income tax entirely as of Jan. 1, 2017, along with phasing out the franchise tax, ending state and local privilege taxes and doing away with the annual report filing fees for businesses.

Ultimately, the Senate measure would result in a flat tax of $5,000 for C corporations and $750 for all other limited liability entities.

The bill would end some sales tax exemptions, including those on newspapers and vending machines.

Two Republicans – Sen. Bob Rucho of Mecklenburg County and Sen. Tommy Tucker of Union County – joined a unified Democratic caucus in voting against the measure.

Rucho’s dissent on the budget vote came after he told the Associated Press that he tendered his resignation as co-chair of the Senate Finance Committee to Berger, due to disagreement over the tax plan. Berger declined to accept the resignation.

During the floor debate, Rucho said the tax plan put forward by Berger did not go far enough in closing tax loopholes.

“I don’t think that anyone disagrees that tax reform is absolutely essential,” Rucho said. “I’m going to oppose this bill, despite the fact that I agree with most of it, because of the fact that we are giving a $1.8 billion loophole when we go zero on franchise tax and corporate tax.”

Democratic Sen. Dan Clodfelter of Mecklenburg County criticized the measure for reducing revenue to local governments, including an estimated $30 million for Charlotte, which he said could lead to higher property taxes to make up for the loss.

“It’s a good tax cut for fat cat lawyers, but it’s not comprehensive tax reform,” Clodfelter said.

Thursday’s full debate on tax reform in the Senate can be heard with the audio player below, courtesy of VoterRadio.com.


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N.C. House gives final approval to budget, sends back to Senate

After about 11 hours of debate over two days, the N.C. House gave final approval on Thursday to its version of a $20.6 billion state budget, sending the bill back to the Senate. The two chambers will now begin the potentially arduous task of forging a compromise spending plan before the new fiscal year starts on July 1.

Thursday’s final vote in the House was 77-40, with Rep. William Brisson of Bladen County the only Democrat to support the GOP-crafted plan and Rep. Robert Brawley of Iredell County the lone Republican to vote against the budget.

After considering almost 30 amendments on Wednesday night, the House did not take up any proposed changes to the budget during the nearly four hours of debate on Thursday.

“This is a common-sense budget,” Rep. Nelson Dollar (R-Wake), one of the lead authors of the budget, said. “It meets the needs of our citizens in the areas of education, in the areas of health care. It meets the needs in the areas of public safety and job development.”

Democrats, with little hope of derailing the budget’s passage, railed against the 300-page spending plan.

“People in this state are hurting and I don’t think this budget does anything to help that, especially in the rural communities,” said Rep. Darren Jackson (D-Wake). “On the three P’s – people, process and priorities – I think this budget fails on all accounts.”

Full audio of Thursday’s budget debate can be heard below, courtesy of VoterRadio.com.


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N.C. House gives tentative approval to $20.6 billion state budget

After more than seven hours of debate on nearly 30 proposed amendments, the Republican-controlled N.C. House gave its initial approval to a $20.6 billion state budget on Wednesday night, 77-41.

The result was almost entirely along party lines, with Rep. Robert Brawley of Iredell County the lone Republican to vote against the GOP-crafted spending plan. Rep. William Brisson of Bladen County and Rep. Ken Waddell of Columbus County were the only Democrats to support the measure.

A final debate and vote on the budget will be held by the House on Thursday, beginning at 9 a.m. After passing the House, the budget would go back to the Senate and likely culminate in a conference committee tasked with negotiating a compromise spending plan between the two chambers, incorporating input from Republican Gov. Pat McCrory.

“We believe that this budget proposal is realistic, it is reasonable and it is responsible,” Rep. Nelson Dollar (R-Wake), one of the budget’s chief architects, said in presenting the bill. “It will place North Carolina’s fiscal house on a very sound foundation for the future.”

Democrats generally panned the 300-page spending plan.

“This budget makes it painfully clear that we don’t have the right priorities in mind for North Carolina,” Rep. Larry Hall (D-Durham) said. “Make no mistake, the real victims in this budget are the middle-class families.”

Among the more than two dozen amendments offered from the floor, one of the most intensely debated was an effort to remove funding for private school vouchers – referred to as “opportunity scholarships” – from the budget and shift that funding to public school teachers and teacher assistants.

That amendment was put forward by Rep. Edward Hanes (D-Forsyth), who said that although he supports school choice, he felt the issue of vouchers should have been considered in a bill separate from the budget.

“While I remain a passionate advocate of all of our children’s constitutional rights to an equal opportunity at a sound and basic education, that passion must be balanced with the right to open debate and for our bills to rise and fall upon their own merit,” Hanes said.

In a rare move, Republican Speaker Thom Tillis (R-Mecklenburg) left the dais to speak against the amendment from the floor.

“The reality is, there are parents, single mothers of small children, who desperately want a choice, ” Tillis said.”This policy gives those poor parents an opportunity to prove that choice works.”

The amendment failed, 52-65, keeping the funds for private school vouchers in the budget.

Wednesday’s closing debate on the House’s spending plan can be heard with the audio player below, courtesy of VoterRadio.com.


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Video: Gov. McCrory plays catch to support Tar Heel, Wolfpack baseball teams

Republican Gov. Pat McCrory released a video Wednesday night to show support for the N.C. State and UNC-Chapel Hill baseball teams as they get ready to face off at the 2013 College World Series on Sunday in Omaha, Nebraska.

The video also plays off the controversy this week when McCrory was accused of dodging a group of advocates and children at the Capitol Building in favor of playing catch with his staff.

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Wake County school board changes become law

The Republican-controlled N.C. Senate voted 33-15 on Wednesday to agree with the House on changes to the way that members of the Wake County Board of Education are elected.

Under the new law, Wake County school board elections will be moved from odd-numbered years to November of even-numbered years beginning in 2016.

In order to accommodate the shift in election years, members elected in 2011 will have their terms extended from the normal four years to five. Members elected in 2013 will serve a shortened three-year term until 2016.

The plan will divide the county into seven numbered districts, with one member elected from each. There will be two additional regional districts, with one covering the more urban central Wake County, and the other ringing the more rural and suburban outer edge of the county.

Beginning in 2016, Wake County residents will vote for two school board seats – one from the numbered district in which they live and a second coming from the regional district that overlaps their numbered district.

The new school board districts can be seen here (PDF).

This will be the second time in three years that the Wake County school board districts have been redrawn, with Republicans crafting new district maps in 2011.

The GOP-led N.C. House approved the measure on Monday night in a largely party-line vote, 70-42. Having now passed both chambers, Senate Bill 325 becomes law without having to go to Gov. Pat McCrory for his signature because it is considered a local bill.

Although nominally nonpartisan, the Wake County Board of Education has been the focus of intense competition between the Republican and Democratic parties as each has tried to gain influence over what is now the state’s largest school district, serving about 150,000 students.

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Eugenics compensation survives challenge in N.C. House committee

Amid the more than seven hours of discussion and debate over the proposed state budget in the N.C. House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday, perhaps the most emotionally charged centered on a provision to compensate victims of the state’s decades-long forced sterilization program.

North Carolina’s eugenics program lasted from 1929 until 1974, with the state subjecting some 7,600 citizens – many of them 10-19 years of age at the time – to sterilization because they were deemed “mentally defective or feeble-minded or otherwise unfit to reproduce.”

There are an estimated 1,700 – 2,400 living victims of eugenics who could be eligible to receive compensation under a provision in the House budget that has the backing of Republican Speaker Thom Tillis and Gov. Pat McCrory.

However, in Tuesday’s House Appropriations meeting, Rep. Larry Pittman (R-Cabarrus) put forward an amendment to remove the $10 million allocated in the spending plan that would be used to compensate living victims of state-mandated sterilization.

“Eugenics was a horrible crime and I would favor holding perpetrators of that crime responsible, if we could get to them. But I don’t believe most of those people are still around,” Pittman said. “It’s today’s taxpayers that would be paying for this and today’s taxpayers are not responsible for it, and I don’t think that’s the right thing to do.”

Pittman said offering the compensation could open a “Pandora’s box” with other people seeking compensation of some kind from the state. He also questioned if the $10 million set aside would be enough to provide payment to living eugenics victims, possibly leading to expensive litigation.

Rep. Mark Brody (R-Union) voiced his support for Pittman’s move to remove eugenics compensation from the budget.

“What I would suggest to anybody who wants to do this is, you’re always welcome to volunteer to put together a program, put together a fund, a drive of some sorts, to address these issues,” Brody said. “But I cannot in good conscience go back to the people of my district and ask them to be taxed for something that they had nothing to do with.”

While a number of Democrats voiced their opposition to Pittman’s amendment, he also faced a strong push back from many of his fellow Republicans, including Rep. Paul Stam (R-Wake), who supports awarding eugenics compensation.

“This is not about what lawmakers did 50 years ago, it’s what the state of North Carolina did to its own citizens involuntarily, to thousands of them, more than any other state and for longer than any other state,” Stam said. “These are people who are alive and to this day bear in their bodies the proof and the scars of what the state of North Carolina did to them involuntarily.”

Rep. Bob Steinburg (R-Chowan) joined Stam in opposing Pittman’s move to eliminate eugenics compensation from the budget.

“We’re involved in reforming government and part of reforming government means we need to pay attention to those things that we have done in the past,” Steinburg said. “How anyone could, with deep thought and prayer, possibly come to the conclusion that we need to just idly skip by this and forget about this stain on North Carolina’s history, to me is beyond the pale.”

Ultimately, the Pittman amendment failed by a wide margin, 22-64, leaving the compensation provision intact.

While eugenics compensation remains in the House’s spending plan for now, it faces another challenge if it reaches a conference committee with the Senate, as that chamber did not include such an allocation in its version of the budget.

If the compensation provision passes, North Carolina would be the first state to offer such payment for victims of involuntary sterilization.

Tuesday’s debate over eugenics in the House Appropriations Committee can he beard with the audio player below, courtesy of VoterRadio.com.


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