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Posted by : Friday, December 20, 2013 5 Comments In Uncategorized

Another day, another utterly absurd, “you can’t make this stuff up” release from the Pope-Civitas Institute. Today’s ridiculously obtuse entry: An attack on a Raleigh businesswoman tabbed by a group of business leaders to help lead their efforts to support public education because — shudder the thought! — she volunteered at one point to help the Great Schools in Wake organization that fought the re-segreation of Wake County schools.

It’s hard to know what measures higher on the insipidness meter: Read More

Posted by : Wednesday, December 11, 2013In Uncategorized

Rob ChristensenRob Christensen of Raleigh’s News & Observer – someone who’s been the target of occasional barbs over here at The Pulse – deserves some kudos this morning for a straightforward and important column in today’s paper entitled “NC’s kids are doing better than you think.”

As Christensen notes, it’s become almost an article of faith in many circles these days that our public schools and students are failing:

“That North Carolina’s schools are failing is a widely shared assumption in certain circles. It is repeated in the echo chamber of talk radio. It is confirmed every time you come across some store clerk who can’t make change, or you hear from an employer who can’t find somebody to operate some piece of technology.

It is given credence by news stories of struggling school systems in poor areas, of racial disparities and of confusing reports about test scores being down because the tests are more difficult.”

But as he goes on to explain, this narrative is actually badly flawed. Read More

Posted by : Thursday, November 21, 2013 4 Comments In NC Budget and Tax Center

A majority of North Carolinians oppose tax cuts that put at risk the state’s investment in public education, a recent Public Policy Polling (PPP) survey shows. When presented with cutting funding for public schools in order to provide taxpayers a tax cut, 68% of North Carolinians oppose such a move.

The tax plan signed by Governor McCrory earlier this year reduced available revenue by $525 million over the next two years and revenue in future years is reduced even further. Benefits from tax cuts in the tax plan will largely flow to the wealthy and profitable corporations, which represent less than 10 percent of all businesses in North Carolina. Under the tax plan, the wealthiest taxpayers will see their taxes cut on average by more than $9,000, with top 1 percent of income earners getting 65 percent of the total net tax cut.

Opposition to cutting investments in public education to provide such tax cuts extends across ideology and political affiliation. Read More

Posted by : Monday, November 4, 2013 9 Comments In Uncategorized

Phil BergerThe over-the-top invective and mean-spirited attacks from the leader of the North Carolina’s state Senate, Sen. Phil Berger, continue to spew forth with disturbing regularity. Today, using language and uttering accusations that one would have thought unworthy of one of the state’s top elected officials, Berger described modest efforts by the North Carolina Association of Educators and other supporters of public schools to call attention to the state’s ongoing underfunding of its public schools and attacks on teachers as: ”bully tactics of an organized union that puts kids’ safety at risk to gin up its membership and inflate the salaries of its executives.”

Good lord — somebody got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning!

The NCAE has, if anything, bent over backwards in recent years to try to work with GOP leaders in the General Assembly. Despite incessant, targeted attacks Read More

Posted by : Monday, November 4, 2013 2 Comments In Uncategorized

There are a lot of reasons that supporters of public education in North Carolina are speaking up and showing their support today by “walking in” to public schools. Today’s “Monday Numbers” edition of the Fitzsimon File spells several of them out with disturbing clarity. 

Yesterday’s editoral in the Charlotte Observer also hit the nail on the head when it explained:

“Supporters of teachers and public schools are encouraged to visit schools, wear red to symbolize support for education, thank teachers in person or leave messages of thanks. Teachers at some schools plan to urge supporters to join school parent groups or volunteer or support schools in other ways. At some schools, there are plans for discussions before and after classes about what teachers are facing each day….

This sounds like a good approach.

GOP Senate leader Phil Berger last week lambasted the ‘walk in’ as a ‘political protest orchestrated by unions” and reminded the teachers that “schools have a duty to educate and protect our children.’ But it is Read More

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