The Rush To Grab Power Slips on the Ice

 

I'm indebted to Rob Schofield's NCNewsline podcast of October 9th for new information on just how awful the hidden provisions in the state budget are turning out to be. They're not just naked and crushing power-grabs but also so badly written that some of them can't be enforced. Two examples:

Schofield: "The State Board of Education learned from its attorney that while it can hear appeals from parents regarding local school board actions under the new Parents Bill of Rights, it has no authority to take any action." 

Previous reporting: 

Under the controversial law, educators must alert parents if their child changes their name or pronoun at school. It also restricts instruction about gender identity and sexuality in K-4 classrooms and makes provisions for parents to review schoolbooks.

Parents can take concerns to the state board if a concern has not been resolved by a local school district within 30 days. Parents must submit concerns to the state board in writing.

Bad Law-Writing Example Number 2:

"The UNC-Chapel Hill official directed to establish a new conservative school on the campus [the School of Civic Life and Leadership] by year’s end, says some of the directives he faces are so illogical that they defy the laws of physics."

Previous reporting:

In addition to a $2 million allocation in each of the next two fiscal years, the budget sets an aggressive hiring deadline of December 31 for the school’s dean. Typically, such a hiring process can take a year or more. The budget also requires the university to hire between 10 and 20 tenured or tenure track faculty for the new school from outside the university....

Prominent faculty members [said that] mandating details down to the number and type of faculty to be hired and from where they must come is a clear message from the legislature that a faculty-led process cannot be trusted to create the school the legislature’s Republican majority wants in the way it wants it.