Atkinson wins the right to do her job
Submitted by James on Fri, 07/17/2009 - 1:15pm
At least temporarily, according to the Dome.
June Atkinson has won her court fight over who is in charge of public education in North Carolina. Wake Superior Court Judge Robert Hobgood ruled today that Atkinson, who was elected statewide as the state superintendent of public instruction, has the authority under North Carolina's constitution to run the state's schools.
Hobgood ruled that the State Board of Education has the authority to set policy for the state's public schools, but that the state constitution dictates that Atkinson, as the state superintendent, is responsible for implementing those policies.
Kudos to Bob Orr for winning a big one, but the battle's just beginning. The Governor apparently plans to flush a bunch more taxpayer money to appeal the ruling so her guy can stay in charge.
I personally don't know whether June Atkinson is up to the job or not, but she was elected to be the Superintendent and is getting paid to do nothing right now. My advice to Bev Perdue? Let it go - don't appeal. As Betsy wrote recently, this has been a stinky mess for years now, and the Easley/Perdue position doesn't pass the smell test.
Plus we sure as heck don't need to be paying two top dogs to sniff each others' tails.
I know I said I wasn't linking to the Dome
but they got this one out fast - and did a good job on the story.
Do good. Be nice. Have fun.
Jubilant June
I added the picture to the post. A little bit tricky by iPhone but seems to have worked. This is an obviously jubilant June Atkinson outside the DPI building just minutes ago.
Great job, Greg! You're amazing
with that i-thingie.
Do good. Be nice. Have fun.
Go Bob Orr!
n/t
GO Sponge Bob And Art!
Go Bob Orr!*JustinThibault
You mean GO Art Pope! You do understand that Sponge Bob is own by Art Pope lock, stock and barrel. So what are you going to do, when Art decides that you need to go back to the first grade and start over?
Update
Laura Leslie of WUNC was actually first out of the gate with the news on Twitter, followed by Paul Wolverton of the FayO. They both have good ongoing play by play on Twitter. There's good coverage at WRAL that started soon after. N&O was slow to post initially but still had a post up in 30 minutes and seems to have good team coverage with different angles & interviews. Mark Binker also has a good update on his Capital Beat blog.
I still don't understand this story!
Why would the governor even question her authority to run Education? That would be similar to the Attorney General questioning the authority of the State auditor. Whats the point.
Anthony D. Hall,
Fighting for Truth, Justice, Freedom and the American Way!
Here's part of it:
Just as county boards of education develop policies that county superintendents implement/enforce, so it goes at the state level, too. Meaning, June Atkinson doesn't have the authority to institute sweeping changes, but she does have a little room to "interpret" what the State Board of Education meant when they decided something. At least that's my understanding, anyway.
Theoretically, having a Board of Education and a Superintendent that have different ideas about what should be done could result in major conflicts. But I have a hunch that's not going to happen.
One boss
Having one administrative boss over one policy board is simply the right thing to do organizationally, and the right things to do by the State Constitution. Everyone should just put this one away and all go back to work for the kids and the public.
Charles Malone
That's right
I've yet to hear a convincing argument from the Governor's office that her approach has value. Now we'll be pouring good money after bad on appeal.
Perdue is doing a good job on some fronts, but she's dumb as a stump on this issues. And it's going to come back to haunt her if she doesn't let it go.
Thanks for the comment.
Do good. Be nice. Have fun.