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Sunday Roundup
posted at 2009-03-22 20:43 | Last modified 2009-03-22 20:43
Money, money, money
The N&O’s Lynn Bonner reports NC schools are preparing for cutbacks. The Governor says her budget plan would increase per-pupil sending -- if local officials use their federal recovery money to backfill state cuts. But districts are worried the cuts will show up before the federal funds do.
Char-O’s Steve Harrison tries to do the math behind Gov. Perdue’s pledge to start building I-485 this year, six years ahead of schedule. The numbers don’t exactly work out. Related: Wilmington’s Joe Johnson takes a closer look at how Perdue’s proposed cuts would hit transportation spending.
The AP reports Perdue doesn’t like the idea of furloughing state workers.
Otherwise…
Forsyth Dem Larry Womble is sponsoring a bill (again) requiring businesses seeking state contracts to disclose any historical evidence that their company participated in or profited from slavery. James Romoser has the story.
The NC Supreme Court deadlocked Friday on whether the lottery was legally enacted. The deadlock means a lower court decision in the lottery’s favor will stand. Fay-O’s Paul Woolverton explains.
A Wake County Superior judge has blocked scheduled changes in the state’s “Beach Plan” insurance program, sending the plan back to the Dept. of Insurance. The VA Pilot’s Catherine Kozak has the details.
It was corned beef versus grilled pork in downtown Raleigh yesterday. Anti-tax activists threw a downtown “tea party” at the capitol while St Patrick’s Day revelers held their rain-delayed parade. The N&O’s Jonathan Cox covered the festivities.
Who’s the boss?
Charlotte’s Jack Betts wonders who’s running the state’s education system. State Superintendent June Atkinson is wondering, too. She’ll be speaking to the Joint Legislative Program Evaluation Oversight Committee tomorrow about the Evergreen Report, a consultant study that says DPI's governance is dysfunctional. And that was before the Governor added CEO Bill Harrison to the org chart, effectively demoting Atkinson to “ambassador for education.”
Perdue said adding a CEO would clarify the chain of command and improve accountability at DPI. But Atkinson says state law makes her the CEO, not Harrison, and voters just don’t know what to make of it all.
Everywhere I go, especially in the Raleigh area, people ask – they stop and say… what is going on? I voted for you, and when I voted for you, I voted for you to run the Department of Public Instruction.
Atkinson wants lawmakers to make a choice: either pass legislation that clearly puts her in charge of the day-to-day management of the school system, or pass a Constitutional amendment and let voters decide whether to make her office appointed, not elected. She says either way, it needs to be resolved ASAP.
It’s by the grace of providence that we have had people in NC in leadership positions who have been willing to work together and move things forward. But what if we come to the point where you don’t have people who are working together? You don’t have an organizational structure to help move public education forward.
She says she hasn’t yet decided whether she’ll sue.
The committee meeting is set for Monday at 4pm in 544 – you can listen online here.
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