schools

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.

Haven't heard it put quite this way, but it's truth:

http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/tea-party-successfully-pushes-wak...

Today over 700 people took to the streets in downtown Raleigh to protest the specter of segregation raised by Republican members of the Wake County School Board.

This public mass non-violent demonstration led by the NC NAACP formed against the dismantling of the nationally acclaimed socio-economic student assignment plan by the new anti-diversity caucus of the Wake County Board of Education. Marchers demanded that Wake County Schools and all school districts in North Carolina provide a constitutional, high quality, well-funded, diverse school for every child.

Over the last few days, residents of Wake County, N.C. -- the site of a nationally watched battle over its school diversity policy -- have been receiving calls from phone pollsters asking for their views on the county's education future.

Yesterday, Facing South editor Sue Sturgis received one of the automated poll calls. But the question of who's behind it is a mystery: The number traces back to a line in Conyers, Georgia that doesn't pick up, and at no time during the "robo-poll" was information provided about who was doing the survey.

Such anonymous automated calls are likely in violation of North Carolina consumer protection laws, which require that the "name and contact information" of the person or group making the call be clearly identified.

Crossposted on Amplify

Bullying in schools is a huge problem, and GLBTQ people face violence, verbal abuse, and discrimination everyday in schools across North Carolina.  There is a great organization called Equality NC, and they are working very hard to promote an anti-bullying bill called the School Violence Prevention Act.  It which includes "gender identity or expression" and "sexual orientation" as reasons why you cant bully someone at school.  Heres what they have to say on their website:

I've been talking to a lot of people on the local level about the School Violence Prevention Act, and urging people to write, e-mail, phone, or otherwise contact their representatives and urge them to support this important piece of legislation.

Well, recently I was asked to gather some statistics on school bullying for a local Democrat newsletter. The information was quite abundant on the web, and it really drove home the point that has bothered me. Opponents of the bill seem to be objecting to the inclusion of sexual orientation and gender identity, because they fear it will lead to other rights being granted to LGBT people. (Yes, I know the idea of me being granted the same rights as my brother and sister is absolutely terrifying but bear with me.)

I am very concerned that the reassignment policies of the Wake County BOE leave an outsized carbon footprint because parents and the bus system have to travel farther than if we left neighborhood schools in place. I wonder if someone has calculated an estimate that this policy has cost since reassignments were put into place in Wake County? Seems like a real waste of our precious resources. Must be somekind of RightWing/Chavez/Saudi conspiracy behind these reassignments!

As Democrats, we should oppose these policies because they certainly erode our carbon footprint.

Today at our house in Fuquay Varina, all the lights went out, followed in seconds by a loud boom. It took us a few minutes to figure out that a local electric transformer a mile or so away had probably exploded, most likely from an overload in the 99 degree heat. It took about 2 hours to restore electricity in our neighborhood.

Most people write "Thank You" notes to express their gratitude. Tim Kent of the North Carolina Association of Realtors takes out 2/3 page ads in newspapers like this one for Dan Blue. Between the PAC ($750,000) the 527 ($350,000) and direct lobbying by NCAR ($500,000) when you've got $1.6 million to spend on legislators there are some things you just can't say with flowers, Hallmark or a horse's head.