education

Save Our Schools is an ongoing philanthropic initiative operated and managed by a local civic organization and a collaboration of community stakeholders for the purpose of providing emergency funds and resources to schools. The fiscal challenge facing our nation is having a significant impact on North Carolina Schools. The impact we are experiencing in the marketplace has trickled down to a reduction in public services.

Our schools are now being forced to make dramatic changes in their budgets, which will result in deferred maintenance, a deficiency in teaching resources, and the loss of educators. In the end, we are hurting our children. While there are parents, individuals, and organizations who are working hard to support our schools, it is clear that there is a need for more.

Recently, an alliance of community leaders and socially responsible companies committed to launch a unified effort to “Save our Schools”. This effort will utilize entrepreneurial creativity and proven strategies to deliver emergency funds to our NC Schools.

The lives of educators are getting more difficult, a-gain. The program of death by a thousand cuts undertaken by the NC General Assembly (GA) continues unabated. The latest, and not well known, cut involves the increasing difficulty of creating a legal school schedule. You, gentle reader, might not recall that school calendars are not created with the principle goal of educating young minds, but rather to maximize the profits of the coastal tourist industry.

While shenanigans abound in Raleigh under the cover of darkness, let us not forget how things got this way. MaryBe McMillan, with the N.C. AFL-CIO, explains it well:

I got a weird little story about my friend Blitz Krieger to bring to you today.

He’s had a crazy car problem, he has, and over the past few months he thought he had found a solution – in fact, he thought he had found the solution of his dreams – but in the end, he’s discovered that the things you dream about often don’t go according to plan.

The way it’s worked out for him so far, it’s been a lot of anticipation followed by a sudden wave of frustration, but I feel like he’s a lot better off having his particular problem with his car…because if he’d had cancer instead, he’d surely be dead by now.

I attended my first Thom Tillis town hall and am still recovering. I feel as if I have just discovered that aliens walk among us, aliens with very big sprayed helmets of bubble hair, polyester instead of skin and very angry red faces. Please see a somewhat censored description of my experience at http://www.progressnc.org/2011/10/its-time-to-stand-up-and-demand-some-a... and, I beg of you, attend any Tillis town hall meetings that come to your area then stand up and make him answer to you. Enough of a free ride for this man! Taxpayers should not be forced to bankroll a feel-good, pre-election, re-election tour which ignores them.

The White House’s and Congress’ continued inaction on responsible immigration reform has led to disaster and crisis, for state governments, local officials, and families alike. But the most serious side effect of this egregious abdication of responsibility is the “open season” many politicians seem to have declared against hard-working immigrant families. In North Carolina, for example, a sheriff’s racist remarks in 2008, used to describe the Latino community during a news interview, resulted not in condemnation but instead praise and adoration. The elected official’s popularity spiked and a Facebook group seeking his re-election was created. Is this really the America we thought we knew?

The massive amounts of money America’s rich spend to keep from paying taxes seems as irrational as it is obsessively ideological. There’s something creepily cultish about it. This week’s massive leak of corporate-written model legislation from the Koch brothers-financed American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has further exposed the depth and breadth of the corporate capture of what was once billed as government of, by, and for the people.

If you care anything about the future of public education, watch this through to the end for a glimpse of what's coming your way. This video describing reform efforts in Illinois went viral over the weekend. The presenter already tried to walk it back. Too little, too late. A few comments from around the Web:

Schools Matter: For those who still believe that there is any way to trust, negotiate with, compromise with, or have any dealings with Ed Deform in any way that does not demand complete capitulation to the ed deformers, watch this video. Play it at your next union meeting, share it with the world.

From our e-mail:

We are saddened by the implications of this budget. You know the statistics: 30,000 jobs lost, 12-13,000 in education alone. North Carolina’s recovery will be hindered by this budget, and our generation will have to live with the consequences.

However, in a strange way, tonight was the night that our faith in the Democratic Party was vindicated. This moment proved that our efforts in 2008 and 2010 were well worth it. We will remember this night as we work across our state to reelect our Governor and take back the General Assembly in 2012.

Chris Fitzsimon of NC Policy Watch takes NC Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger to task over claims that cuts to the education budget will not harm classrooms and that NC's low high school graduation rate proves that the system is broken. With teachers and assistants losing their jobs to budget cuts every day, Fitzsimon writes, "... any superintendent or principal can tell him that his talking point about protecting teachers is off base." Furthermore [links added],