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Out of the mainstream

Posted on June 30, 2011June 30, 2011 by Staff

Joe Hackney

Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools will eliminate 500 jobs soon and have declared it a victory. Cumberland County is cutting nearly 400 workers from its school system. Wake County has pink-slipped 200 school employees and more are waiting to hear if they will have jobs in the fall. Kannapolis City Schools have fired 114 educators; Harnett County, 88, most of them teacher assistants; Duplin County, 210; and Lee County, 50.

Our universities and community colleges also plan to lay off thousands. N.C. Central University just announced that 107 positions will be eliminated under this plan, and more educators will follow them to the unemployment line as the evidence mounts that this Republican legislature’s budget fails to protect education. And Republicans own it. Legislative Democrats fervently opposed this proposal and the governor issued a well-warranted veto. They failed to listen and fought hard to keep this job-destroying plan in place.

But while they did not find time to save jobs during this session that was supposed to be about the economy, this legislature was otherwise busy. They exerted great effort pushing a partisan, right-wing social agenda that most people in North Carolina neither wanted nor expected. Their work includes:

• attempted state-level repeal of the federal health care reform law, a useless effort the governor vetoed; 

• voter suppression in nearly every way possible. They passed legislation to shorten early voting, end straight-ticket voting and require government-issued IDs at the polls. They want to end voter registration drives and same-day voter registration. They also want to inject party politics and pay-to-play into more races by requiring judges again to run in partisan races and ending public financing for some statewide offices; 

• softer gun laws. House Republicans inexplicably voted to allow guns on school grounds and in bars. Both chambers have approved a law allowing concealed weapons in our state parks; 

• intruding into the confidential doctor-patient relationship by giving doctors a script to recite to patients seeking abortions and requiring a 24-hour waiting period. They offer no exceptions for victims of rape or incest or for women whose health is threatened;

• blocking access to low-interest loans for some community college students;

 • attempting to increase access to short-term, high-interest loans, over the stringent objections of our state’s military leaders; and

• rolling back many of our environmental regulations to federal minimums while gutting the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. They are also moving too quickly to allow offshore oil drilling and potentially hazardous “fracking” in search of natural gas.

None of these policies create jobs or improve our economy. They are mostly outside the mainstream thinking of our moderate electorate and will take us backwards to a time when our state was less educated and less competitive. Already, we have fallen to 49th in the nation in per-pupil funding with this budget, and deeper cuts are called for next year. It was a poor start for Republican leaders who are increasingly proving to be out of touch with the people of North Carolina.

Rep. Joe Hackney is the leader of the N.C. House Democratic Caucus. He was Speaker of the House of Representatives from 2007-11. He represents portions of Orange, Chatham and Moore counties.

1 thought on “Out of the mainstream”

  1. Gary Scott says:
    June 30, 2011 at 11:15 pm

    Duplin County rehired almost all teachers and most assistants once the state budget was passed. They RIF’d the employees only because they say the law requires them to notify employees in May who may not be offered employment the following year—a game that seems to get played annually.

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