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| Phil Berger, President Pro Tempore of the NC Senate |
1. So Gov. Bev Perdue takes the gutsy action of calling on the NC General Assembly to raise sales taxes three-quarters of a penny to restore some of the teaching jobs lost under the budget rammed through by the new Republican majority, a budget which included letting a temporary 1-cent sales tax increase expire.
2. Republican Senate Pooh-bah Phil Berger has a conniption, partly, we suspect, over the fact that The Guv was gutsy. Who saw that coming? He challenges Perdue to a debate. Which she declined.
Asked how much of this is about election-year politics, Berger said he’d been told by consultants that “The governor’s path to re-election is most likely going to be successful if she can pick a fight with the legislature. In my opinion, I think what you’re seeing, particularly over the last week or so, is her picking that fight."
Let that sink in. Republican consultants have been telling Berger (and Thom Tillis, we would guess) that their long-awaited assumption of power in the state has made them very unpopular. More than just telling Berger, they were apparently warning him that The Guv could put herself on a track to reelection if she "picks a fight" with the unpopular Republican-dominated General Assembly.
She does it, and Berger spills the beans. There are some Republican consultants experiencing face-palm time right now in Raleigh.
First the policies of Perdue have made her very unpopular in NC. In fact she is one of the most unpopular governors in the nation. Secondly, in addition to funding, would you advocate for educational reform? You need to begin with the removal of tenure. Good teachers need to be paid and bad ones need to be fired. A new training program must be established for principals. A good principal can force bad teachers to do their job. A good principal is the key to a school that addresses the needs of students. Dropouts must be addressed. The state has just developed a new system of counting. We do not have less students dropping out of school. We just count them differently.Perdue needs to start running for students not for the votes of teachers. Perdue has more cooties than the Republicans.You need to care about students. We spend more money per child than any country in the world but we ranked 15th in math and 18th in science.The percentage of student that enter the community college must take remedial math and reading is unreal Manfacturing says they cannot find a qualified work force, people with basic math and computer skills. Enough people could not pass a drug test for a company to consider locating in some counties. We need to start talking about real problems. You just hate Republicans and you cannot see the real trees.
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