Eight days after she was essentially surplussed by Gov. Bev Perdue, State Schools Superintendent June Atkinson is speaking out against her new “ambassadorial” (read: powerless) role at the Department of Public Instruction. 

In a letter sent today to Pro Tem Marc Basnight and Speaker Joe Hackney, Atkinson asks lawmakers to intervene in the restructuring. Of course, being June Atkinson, she does so very politely and with a great deal of tact, starting with praise for Bill Harrison, the new "CEO" who’s been given the oversight powers those crazy voters probably thought they were giving her.

He deserves a chance to make a difference; and I, with more than 30 years of dedicated service and experience in the education field, deserve a chance as well.  Twice I have stepped forward and offered my service and leadership, and twice I have been denied this opportunity. I attribute this denial to the current governance structure as outlined in legislation.

Atkinson says lawmakers need to address DPI governance as a constitutional issue, not just “in a piecemeal fashion,” and she asks them to decide whether Perdue should be given “total authority of [sic] education.” 

Regardless of whether I have the authority to advocate for the department or to actually run the agency, I will take pride and comfort in knowing that many of my colleagues in the Department of Public Instruction and in public schools across the state recognize that during my last term, I played a significant role in influencing efforts to make public education better.

Can't wait for the next Council of State meeting.  

Sexual (R)evolution?

This may go down as the only time social conservatives have ever opposed parental choice.  House Dems Bobby England and Susan Fisher are backing a bill to broaden NC’s sex education curriculum.  Since 1996, state law has prohibited schools from teaching anything more than abstinence till marriage – unless local boards were willing to take the political risk of opening up public hearings on a more comprehensive curriculum. 

The new proposal would require schools to offer two tracks – comprehensive and abstinence-only.  Parents would choose what they want their child to learn. Asheville Dem Susan Fisher says in a similar program already underway in New Hanover County, 90 percent of parents are choosing comprehensive ed over abstinence. 

I think part of the problem is that it’s been made sort of a political issue in different counties.  Depending on where you’re from, it can be more of a political hot potato.  What I think this bill does is it effectively takes the politics out of it.

Social conservatives don't much like the two-track idea. The NC Family Policy Council’s John Rustin says comprehensive sex ed sends kids mixed messages.

There’s also the policy question of what the state ought to be promoting. Should it be promoting the wisest healthy choices that our students can make, or should it be promoting very high risk sexual behaviors?

And then there’s the issue of the default setting.  Under Fisher’s proposal, students would be put into the comprehensive track unless they bring back a note from their parents electing abstinence only classes.  Any guesses as to how many of those forms might get “lost” on the way to school? 

As for cost, Fisher says it would be minimal, and far lower than the current cost of social services, medical care, and dropouts associated with unwanted teen pregnancies.  Which, by the way, are up 3 percent in the last year – a very steep jump in terms of statewide statistics.   Also noteworthy:  NC had the country’s 6th highest per capita rate of gonorrhea cases last year, just behind five other Bible-belt states with similar abstinence-only mandates.   So, yeah, that’s working.

Math Challenged

House and Senate lawmakers crammed into 643 today for their first official budget briefing of the new session.  I wonder how many wished they’d taken a pass.

It was a solid hour of Really Bad News from two fiscal research guys who probably know the state budget better than anyone else. Barry Boardman said state revenues probably won’t even start to recover till sometime in 2010. And Evan Rodenwald warned lawmakers they can probably only count on $717M or so of fiscal stabilization money from the proposed federal stimulus package.  The projected half billion this year in Medicaid help may not go far, either, since demand increases during economic downturns.  

Longtime Senate budget chair Linda Garrou led the meeting (it’s the Senate’s turn to start the budget this year). She advised budget writers to “Eat your Wheaties and be ready to go, because this is going to be some serious work we have to do.”  Afterward, she said she’s not willing to put the budget on hold while Congress decides how much help to hand out.

Regardless of how much money – if we had all the money in the world – there are things that we need to do in state government.  Become more streamlined, become more effective.  We can’t continue to just keep dumping money into things. We’ve got to be – use our money more wisely and in better ways, and it’s a great opportunity for us to do that.

Garrou also seconded Perdue’s earlier warning that state employee layoffs may be on the horizon.

Private businesses – we can’t pick up the paper without realizing how may people are having cuts made. And that may be an area that we need to look at. You know, we certainly hope that we won’t come to that, but that way may be where we’re headed.

Senate Leader Marc Basnight has said he’s opposed to laying off state employees.  House Speaker Joe Hackney says he hopes the state can avoid it, but says contingency planning is always good.

(In case you wondered, North Carolina currently employs about 322,000 people.)

Tomorrow, more fun – the state of the State Health Plan, which was headed for an $800M gap last time I checked.   Yikes.

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