Shivving Winston-Salem ... Because They Can

Rep. Donny Lambeth,
forcing himself to smile

Currently, the city of Winston-Salem elects eight members to its city council (plus a mayor who only votes to break ties). Currently, seven of them are Democrats and one is a Republican. Currently, four are white and four are black. Forsyth County Republican reps in the General Assembly filed a vicious little bill last Thursday (March 28) to change that council in radical ways.

The bill would reduce council districts (wards) from eight to five. Three black incumbent women (D.D. Adams, Vivian Burke, and Annette Scippio) would be shoved into the same district, to run against each other. Incumbent white male Dan Besse would also be double-bunked with the lone Republican. The three dissolved ward seats would become "at large" council seats, the mayor would be given a vote on every measure before the council, and all terms of office would be reduced to two years.

Chaos.

The two House sponsors of this snide innovation, Donny Lambeth and Debra Conrad, might relish the punishment they're meting out to their partisan enemies in the urban core of Winston-Salem. But they might want to take note of what happened in Guilford County after a vicious little attempt to upend the Greensboro city council in a similar way (see last paragraph below). Neither Lambeth nor Conrad won reelection last fall by unassailable margins. As a matter of fact, Lambeth beat his Democratic opponent, Dan Besse (where have I heard that name before?), by just over 2,000 votes, and Debra Conrad's Dem opponent, Terri LeGrand, came within 3,200 votes in a much more rural section of Forsyth. (Full disclosure: I contributed to both the Besse and the LeGrand campaigns.)

One of the black council women targeted with triple-bunking, D.D. Adams, ran against 5th District Congresswoman Virginia Foxx last fall, and she "emphatically denounced" Lambeth and Conrad to the Winston-Salem Journal "for what she described as a racist payback for the Democratic activism of black women":

"Everybody thinks we are going to hold hands and sing Kumbaya — it's not going to happen that way," Adams said a day after learning of the bill. "This is one of those times when we are going to have to fight."

Her message to Lambeth and Conrad: "How dare you?" ... repeated. "How dare you!"

Said Dan Besse: "It is no coincidence that they drew me into the only Republican-leaning district ... When you look at the fact that I challenged Donny, and D.D. challenged Virginia Foxx -- that has to flag the city on the radar of the Republican party structure."

No kidding, the arrogance. "I don't know what problem they are trying to solve," said the lone Republican on the council, Robert Clark, referring to Lambeth and Conrad. "I think the city council should be consulted before anything moves forward. They don't talk with anybody, they just do it ... I am absolutely puzzled." That's what the Republican thought.

Remember that Republicans in Raleigh also overreached for partisan advantage in a proposal to redistrict the city government of Greensboro. How did that attempt work out for them? In this last election, Guilford County saw a net gain of one Democrat in the NC House (Ashton Clemmons) and one Democrat in the NC Senate (Michael Garrett). Garrett actually beat the author of the Greensboro redistricting attempt, Sen. Trudy Wade, a comeuppance that could instill a little humility in Lambeth and Conrad.

Another Terrible Idea From the Republicans in Raleigh

D. Craig Horn
"Let Them Eat Pixels"

Now they want poor four-year-olds to go to pre-school by sitting in front of a computer screen at home.

No, really. The "Virtual Early Learning Pilot Program" was filed by some powerful Republicans including D. Craig Horn of Union County, who chairs a couple of education committees in the NC House, and Harry Warren of Rowan County (among others).

Kristopher Nordstrom, senior policy analyst for the NC Justice Center's Educational Law Center, points out that "early childhood experts almost universally warn against virtual pre-school programs" because a computer screen is not the same thing as human contact with other children and other adults.

Master teacher Justin Parmenter, a finalist for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools teacher of the year in 2016, offers this wise commentary:

Many of the advantages of a quality preschool education require children to actually be in the presence of other people. Those advantages include, among many other things, learning how to communicate effectively with peers, how to work together to solve problems, how to share and wait for your turn, how to be independent, and how to be respectful toward peers and adults. Those lessons form a critical foundation which helps prepare children for the transition to kindergarten.

The Republicans in the General Assembly want to by-pass that sort of pre-school because it's more expensive than sitting a kid in front of a computer screen -- they're just poor and minority kids, after all, and should be grateful.

"Additional ickiness," about this bill, according to Nordstrom: "It was clearly written to direct appropriations to a specific virtual pre-school provider called UPSTART. What sort of contact has this company had with the bill's sponsors? Why have they chosen this specific provider of an unneeded service?" 

Pay to play?

"Even more ickiness," from Nordstrom: "It's a pilot program for children in poverty. Lawmakers would never inflict a misguided experiment like this on the children of rich white families..."

All of this comes on the heels of the complete failure of the virtual charter schools "pilot" program. The 2 virtual charters have been among worst 2 schools in the state, yet the "pilot" was deemed successful and the schools extended an additional four years ... NCGA lawmakers continue to pursue bullshit ideas to avoid facing the facts: it costs money to have high-quality education programs. You can't have a quality education system when you've already given away $3.6bn a year to corporations & the wealthy ... Both virtual charters and virtual pre-school have a common champion: @dcraighorn [D. Craig Horn]. He goes to a lot of education events. He should face tough questions about these two programs wherever he goes.

It's Not Okay

Renee Ellmers Auditioning for Act Two

Looks like primary races for lieutenant governor of North Carolina are going to be energetic. On the Democratic side, we have Cal Cunningham, Terry Van Duyn, Chaz Beasley, and several others facing off. And now on the Republican side, as of yesterday, we have a new prom queen, Renee Ellmers, entering the contest. She was last heard from when she was defeated in the Republican congressional primary in 2016 by Rep. George Holding. She had been elected to represent the 2nd Congressional District in 2010 and held the seat until redistricting shoved her into a match-up with George Holding.

So far, Ellmers will be up against former Mount Airy Mayor Deborah Cochran, but there's a basketball team's worth of Republican men who've been considering the office.

Even though she was elected with the Tea Party wave of 2010, Ellmers never earned the trust of many on the far right. Some outright hate her. The Daily Haymaker refers to her as a she-devil, about as welcome on the ballot as a case of cancer. No, really. For her part, Renee broadcasts on one of her Twitter accounts that she "Jesus,Trump, animals, gardening, beach, boating," which certainly sets my mind at ease that she's fully equipped to do the same job that the current occupant of the office, Dan Forest, has been doing.

Some ultra-conservative Republican man will for sure announce a run, now that Ellmer's in. You can bet on it.

Will Not Be Spending More Time With His Family

Republican NC House Rep. Cody Henson (District 113, Transylvania, Polk, and part of Henderson counties) announced that he will not seek reelection in 2020. He's currently in his second term, the youngest member of the NC House. He's also fighting serious allegations brought by his estranged wife who was granted a protective order against Henson last month. More recently, the Transylvania County Sheriff’s office issued a criminal summons in a cyberstalking complaint also filed by his wife. Two small children are involved in the drama.

Henson's wife said she feared for her life and the lives of her children. In the hearing for the protective order, she presented to the judge a binder of messages she had received from her husband.

Henson describes himself as a Christian conservative who's big on family values, but his wife is clearly afraid of him.

Corporatism in the University

One of the ironies of the Republican/conservative/free-market ideology as it's taken root in our university system … For all its emphasis on the market as the optimal form of social organization, it ends up producing a whole cadre of bureaucrats and middle-management. Mo titles, mo money.

Specifically, as universities and other public institutions are starved of public funding and are encouraged to be more efficient, the advocates of this model also demand huge amounts of monitoring-- “compliance standards,” “assessment,” and “review.” Chancellors in the UNC System are now more driven than ever before to earn the approval of a hyper-touchy and majorly conservative Board of Governors on criteria that are not necessarily universal nor heaven-sent. 

Under former University President Margaret Spellings’ strategic plan, chancellors had to sign on to several strategic goals. Their pay raises became tied directly to performance reviews of goals-achieved. It takes extra administrative hands to manufacture and handle all that paperwork. University sub-deans and assistant vice chancellors constantly compile long lists of numbers of how their schools are doing on a host of "metrics," such as student retention, five-year graduation rates, rural enrollment, and so on.

Let's call it "corporatism." More managers, more compliance. 

Add the additional squeeze of money. With state funds diminishing as a share of institutional budgets, and with even tuition now capped, campuses have to compete for students, increase their enrollment, which requires all kinds of other managerial resources (“student support”) aimed at attracting those students and keeping track of them, while feeding, housing, and cosseting them.

Plus there’s still a glut of PhDs looking for jobs. Universities just don’t care that much about attracting and retaining the best faculty, because it’s a buyer's market out there. As administrators toy with shifting more and more to online education, even PhDs are becoming unnecessary.

NEW REPORT: New Administrators at AppState Increasing Three Times the Rate of Faculty

“A Review of Faculty Salaries and Budget Priorities at Appalachian" was released October 20 by AppState’s Center for Economic Research and Policy Analysis (CERPA). 

The report reaches the following conclusions: 

- Recent allocations of positions prioritize upper and mid-level administration. Since 2014, the number of full-time upper and mid-level administrative positions increased three times faster than faculty positions. Among the three employment categories -- SHRA employees (Subject to the State Human Resources Act), EHRA Non-Faculty (exempt from the State Human Resources Act), and Faculty -- faculty positions increased at the slowest rate.

- “Trends in allocations reveal recent shifts in budget priorities. In the five-year period between 2008-2013, funding for the academic budget grew faster than funding for each of the three support budgets (institutional, academic, and student). In the most recent five-year period, funding for each of the three support budgets grew considerably faster than funding for the academic budget.”

BREAKING NEWS--Republican Abortion Law in NC Ruled Unconstitutional

Will Doran, for the News and Observer: US District Court Judge William Osteen just ruled that North Carolina’s ban on women having abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy is unconstitutional. 

The ruling won’t go into effect immediately. The judge gave state lawmakers 60 days to either write a new abortion law or appeal his ruling. The state’s abortion ban has exceptions for certain emergencies, but critics said it doesn’t comply with U.S. Supreme Court rulings. 

Osteen, who was appointed to the court by Republican President George W. Bush, agreed.

Another Rising Democratic Star in North Carolina

Last Thursday State House Rep. Chaz Beasley announced via video on his Facebook page that he is a candidate for Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina. He's entering a Democratic primary that is already getting crowded, with Cal Cunningham and Terry Van Duyn the big names with four or more others also putting their names forward.

Whatever happens, Chaz Beasley should be a political force in North Carolina for many years to come.

He grew up in Statesville in a single-parent household, graduated at the head of his class in 2004 from Newton-Conover High School, went to Harvard and graduated with high honors in economics in 2008, got a law degree from Georgetown in 2013 and ran successfully for the NC House (District 92 in Mecklenburg County) in 2016. He's now in his second term. He's an associate in the Alston and Bird law firm where he specializes on finance, representing financial institutions in corporate and structured debt financing.

The Ritual Humiliation of Steve Long

[Thank Gawd for @JoeKillianPW, who's actually in the room for the UNC Board of Governors meeting at AppState this morning. I'm depending on his Twitter feed]

You remember Steve Long? He's the one member of the Board of Governors who's come out publicly against UNC BOG Chair Harry Smith. Even urged his replacement. Primarily for the ouster of Eastern Carolina University Chancellor Cecil Staton.

This is what happened to Steve Long this morning:

JoekillianPW‏ @JoekillianPW

UNC Board of Governors member Steve Long is now apologizing to Chairman Harry Smith and the board for speaking out after the ECU chancellor's ouster. He said he should have come directly to Smith rather than speaking publicly on the matter in an "intemperate" way. #NCPol #ECU

JoekillianPW‏ @JoekillianPW

Long previously said Smith needed to step down, accused him of carrying out a personal vendetta against ECU Chancellor Cecil Staton. He now says he didn't handle things the right way. Smith thanks him, says they continue to be friends. http://ow.ly/hGBn30o9jm1  #UNCPol #ECU

 @JoekillianPW

Interim UNC System President Bill Roper does not acknowledge any controversy over asking the ECU Chancellor for his resignation, says simply he thanks the chancellor for his service and moves on to other business. #NCPol #ECU #UNC

JoekillianPW‏ @JoekillianPW

Reminder: Several UNC BOG members told Policy Watch earlier this week there was a movement to formally censure board member Steve Long for speaking out over the ECU Chancellor ouster and Smith's role in it. Long made an abrupt about-face this morning, apologizing. #NCPol #ECU