My home, the Old North State, Carolina del Norte, the Tar Heel State, has been described as a “vale of humility between two mountains of conceit.” I loved that from the first time I heard it. In case you’re doing the geography in your head right now, the mountains are South Carolina and Virginia. South Carolina and Virginia are to the United States as Greece and France are to Europe. I don’t know where we fit in that category, but I do think that North Carolinians have always prided themselves on their progressiveness.
This label has not belonged to a particular political party so much since for the majority of the last century North Carolina has essentially existed under one-party rule. That party was, of course, the Democratic Party, but the fact that it was the party currently associated with liberalism does not mean that North Carolina Democrats were liberals. Jesse Helms, for instance, was a Democrat until 1970. His shocking intolerance for the gay son of a prominent supporter lead that supporter to actively campaign against him when Helms called Mark Clarke’s death from AIDS the result of “playing Russian Roulette with his sexuality.”
Helms intolerant and extreme behavior foreshadowed the virus of immoderate radicalism that would infect some portions of the Republican Party in years to come. That the whole party was not so infected is evidenced by the political success of Jim Martin, the only two-term Republican governor since reconstruction who was endorsed in his first general election by a prominent Democrat. An educator and pragmatist, Martin focused on constructing the infrastructure that could support North Carolina’s economic growth while supporting a strong public education system which includes the nation’s oldest public university.
Make no mistake, North Carolina is not California. We have made our share of mistakes where social justice and racial equality are concerned, but its hard to imagine an Orval Farbus finding much of a base of support in the old North State. Or at least it used to be hard to imagine, yet strange things are afoot in the modernist building down on Jones Street. Strangest, perhaps, is that 71 of the 170 members of the legislature derive as much knowledge of the workings under the dome from the News and Observer as you and I do. Only 99 legislators have any role in forming decisions. When I ask a Democratic Representative or Senator for their prognostication on any issue, the best they can do is refer me to a Republican colleague.
This, of course, is troubling to a Democrat, but it should be troubling to anyone of either party who is represented by a Democrat since that person has been effectively disenfranchised. It also means that very substantial and perhaps troubling developments can transpire without the cleansing power of sunlight to give them their due diligence. The proposal within the current budget to allow corporations to receive a tax credit of up to $4,000 per student for whom they make a tuition payment to a private school is clearly a voucher by another name. It is also clearly discriminatory toward those who work for tax exempt organizations and the governments at any level. Let’s also throw in the fact that these payments stand to become effectively untaxed compensation for executives. Long story short, wackadoo idea.
It’s also a cleaver distraction for the real target: teachers. The Education Bill wants to get all students reading on grade level by the time they reach the fourth grade. Great. It aims to end “social promotion.” OK. It acknowledges that small class sizes are the way to get this done. Uh huh. It proposes cutting budgets and firing teachers. What? I think they lost the plot there at the end. Smaller classes mean more teachers means more dollars. Not to mention that most of the issues with reading stem from the fact that some children do not hear a word read or necessarily even see a printed page before they get to kindergarten. That’s what that Early Head Start and More at Four money which was cut last year was for.
I think, however, it is ok to stop trying to reason out what the leadership of the NCGA is trying to do based on what they say. I don’t think they are being straightforward in their speech when it comes to their policies. They are, however, clear in there actions. 55% of the state budget is devoted to education, so that’s where the cuts are. Another huge chunk is transportation, and the simultaneous proposals to reduce the gas tax and change I-95 into a toll road show where that one is headed. All of this, by the way is just preview. Speaker of the House Tom Tillis has stated that the most important thing they need to take on is “tax reform” and that they will do so in 2013 (in other words, after the next election.)
The threat to North Carolina’s enduring commitment to education is huge. A fundamental shift in the way public goods are managed and financed is looming. The voices of those who hold contrary opinions are being systematically excluded. An environment of respect for the dignity of every viewpoint has been shattered. Yet this is just a single session of our state legislature. Even a radical group moving quickly can only do so much. Given two more years, the radical may become the institutional. It’s great political hyperbole to say that “this election is the most important in a generation;” however, for North Carolinians, this one truly may be.