• Churchill Discusses • Still Wrestling With Islamist Terror, P. 6 Title IX, P. 12

All Eyes on Black Eye Bill, P. 9 Funeral Home Fights, P. 16

Statewide Edition A Monthly Journal of News, Analysis, and Opinion from March 2006 • Vol. 15, No. 3 the John Locke Foundation www.CarolinaJournal.com www.JohnLocke.org Funding Gaps, Delays Plague N.C. Roads By MICHAEL LOWREY dependence Boulevard — also known Associate Editor as U.S. 74 — the state’s busiest nonin- CHARLOTTE The state’s lagging road terstate, which the state is rebuilding at or most drivers, there’s a road that projects, such as I-540 in an average rate of about one-fourth mile frustrates them. It’s a project for per year. In Wake County, the highway is which there’s an obvious need, Raleigh shown at right, the Interstate 540 loop, with completion Fbut it never seems to be addressed. likely to occur about 2030. In Shelby, the For George Walker, a teacher at Inde- are the result of fund- road is a U.S. 74 bypass. All-important pendence High School just outside ing shortfalls estimated projects, all seemingly delayed and Charlotte, that road is U.S. 74 through delayed more. Monroe. to reach $30 billion over Problems with the North Carolina “Highway 74 is old, yet you still highway system — such as being 10 back up in Monroe and Rockingham, the next 25 years. Some years behind on building roads — are adding 30 minutes to a three-hour and legislators are calling for nothing new. In 1989, gasoline taxes were 15-minute trip to the coast,” he said. “temporarily” raised to fund the con- Of course, it isn’t just the drive major reforms in the way struction of specific projects such as U.S. to the beach that can be a problem for highway funds are 74 and the rest. All 36 of the highways Walker, his friends, and fellow teachers. designated by the General Assembly to There is no lack of problem roads, even allocated. be built with the extra tax revenue were in residential areas. CJ Photo by Don Carrington originally supposed to be completed “They may widen roads, but things by 2003. Today that completion date like adding turn lanes wait long after the he said. about building or improving for years remains in the distant future. homes are built. Most North Carolina cities have a — and with completion scheduled for “When they address the roads situ- road such as U.S. 74, a critical highway the far future. ation they usually are a decade behind,” that state officials have been talking In Charlotte, that highway is In- Continued as “Funding” Page 3 Transit — Especially Rail — Likely To Be Hot Session Topic By MICHAEL LOWREY regional rail line underscores the difficul- rules, though, which includes detailed with the TTA’s proposal — and on both Associate Editor ties rail transit faces in North Carolina calculations of a variety of factors that sides of the equation, ridership numbers CHARLOTTE in general. FTA officials think are important in and associated time savings, as well as ransportation is likely to be a hotly assessing the viability of a proposed the cost of the project. debated topic in Raleigh when the Cost effectiveness the key rail line. In 2004, the FTA rejected TTA’s General Assembly returns to ses- One critical factor in obtaining FTA ridership projections. The federal agency Tsion in May, and attention will naturally funding for a project is that it be cost-ef- found the TTA’s assumptions and mod- Rail transit projects, even if built fall to rail transit in particular. fective, that it generate significant time- eling to be questionable and withheld using existing rail corridors, are pricey. Although Charlotte recently start- savings for commuters for the amount final approval until the problem was ed work on the state’s first rail transit As a result, local and state governments of money invested. The FTA measures corrected. To date, the issue has not line, it’s uncertain whether additional typically look to the Federal Transit this by calculating the incremental cost been resolved; recent model runs do not lines will be built soon. The collapse of Administration to pick up a substantial per hour of transportation system user the Triangle Transit Authority’s bid to portion of a project’s cost. Those seeking benefits in the forecast year. obtain federal funding for its proposed federal funding have to play by the FTA’s It’s here that the FTA has problems Continued as “Transit” Page 2

Do you support repeal of the 80recently imposed 3-cent gas tax? The John Locke Foundation NONPROFIT ORG. Contents 200 W. Morgan St., #200 U.S. POSTAGE Raleigh, NC 27601 PAID RALEIGH, NC State Government 3 PERMIT NO. 1766 CJ Special 6 Education 8 Higher Education 12 Yes 69 % Local Government 16 No 29 % Books & the Arts 20 Not Sure 2 % Opinion 24 Parting Shot 28 John William Pope Civitas Institute Poll, February 2006 CAROLINA C a r o l i n a North Carolina JOURNAL Journal Transit Issues To Dominate Upcoming Session Richard Wagner Continued from Page 1 amount of tax revenues to be transferred “Charlotte is not immune to these Editor to the capital plan,” the FTA noted in the problems,” UNC-Charlotte transporta- show enough benefits to justify funding New Starts report. tion studies Professor David Hartgen Don Carrington the line even under the less-demand- The TTA has projected revenues said. “Questions were also raised about Executive Editor ing criteria the FTA used in approving to grow faster than inflation while costs the South Boulevard line’s projections. infrastructure projects before last year, will increase more slowly than inflation. The other corridors are significantly Paul Chesser, Michael Lowrey much less the current standard. Donna Martinez This creates smaller out-year operating weaker in their ridership potential and While ridership projections have Associate Editors losses, leaving tax revenue available to are more costly.” been the best-publicized challenge fac- help build the system. Charlotte Area Transit System Chad Adams, Shannon Blosser, ing the Durham-to-Raleigh rail line, the The capital plan also presumes officials hope to extend the South Bou- Andrew Cline, Roy Cordato, newly released FTA New Starts report development around rail stations will levard line from uptown Charlotte to Paige Holland Hamp, David Hartgen, notes a number of other serious concerns net $65 million in joint development pro- the northeast of the city and eventually Sam A. Hieb, Lindalyn Kakadelis, about the proposed project. ceeds during construction, an amount UNC-Charlotte, and to build a commut- Mitch Kokai, George Leef, In any attempt to meet the cost- FTA officials think “can only be- con er rail line from the center of Charlotte Maximilian Longley, Rick Martinez, effectiveness threshold, the TTA has sidered speculative at best at this point northbound to the towns of Huntersville, Karen Palasek, Marc Rotterman, twice in the last two years reduced the in time.” Part of the problem is that the Davidson, and Mooresville. Mike Rouse, R.E. Smith Jr., scope of the project. In July 2004, among TTA doesn’t have a signed agreement The plans for the last two corridors, Jack Sommer, John Staddon, other changes, the agency reduced the with a main developer. running from uptown Charlotte to the Jim Stegall, George Stephens, length of its proposed opening-day line Jeff Taylor, Michael Walden, The FTA has given the TTA until west to Charlotte/Douglas International by deferring the construction of track to Karen Welsh, Hal Young Sept. 30 to address its various con- Airport, and to the southeast along In- Contributing Editors north Raleigh. This change would leave cerns. dependence Boulevard to Mathews, the line 28 miles long with 12 stations are less well-defined. A choice of mode Richard Carney, Travis Fisher, instead of 32 miles with 16 stations. The South Boulevard, then what? of transportation is not due before late Guillermo Peña, Brent Lucas, TTA estimated the total cost of the project this year. Jenna Ashley Robinson, at $694.6 million. While the Triangle’s attempt to CATS officials envision building Matt Stephenson More-detailed design work showed build a rail transit line has hit a serious these routes sooner. Work on all of the Editorial Interns the shorter line’s cost would be nearer snag and might ultimately falter, work routes is to start by 2010 and most work $900 million. In response, the TTA was has begun on a 9.6-mile light-rail line in is to be done by 2012 or 2013. Published by again forced to make changes, includ- Charlotte. The route runs from uptown Whether that’s realistic is another The John Locke Foundation ing altering the type of train to be used, Charlotte along South Boulevard to near matter. None of the proposed additional 200 W. Morgan St., # 200 deleting some grade crossings, redesign- Pineville. Completion is scheduled for Raleigh, N.C. 27601 rail lines has progressed to preliminary ing stations with shorter platforms and 2007. (919) 828-3876 • Fax: 821-5117 engineering status with the FTA yet, www.JohnLocke.org different canopies, and eliminating a The $427 million project is far from much less to the final design phase that pedestrian bridge. the end of the rail transit story in the comes before a full funding grant agree- Jon Ham All told, more than 20 changes were city, though. Charlotte’s transit plan is ment can be finalized. Vice President & Publisher proposed to get the project down to a cost based upon five transit corridors, with It took nearly five years from en- of $809.9 million. The federal New Starts either rail or dedicated busways, run- tering preliminary engineering status to John Hood share would be $485.4 million. ning from uptown Charlotte. The South get final federal approval for the South Chairman & President These latest cuts, however, have Boulevard line is the first of these cor- Boulevard line, while the Raleigh-Dur- not been finalized; stakeholders have not ridors to reach construction. The whens, ham regional line is at the point of failure Bruce Babcock, Herb Berkowitz, signed off on them and the FTA and TTA hows, and even-ifs of the remaining four eight years after entering preliminary James Culbertson, Jim Fulghum, are conducting a review to see what en- corridors remain uncertain seven years engineering. Bill Graham, Robert Luddy, vironmental impact, if any, the changes after Mecklenburg County adopted an Assad Meymandi, Baker A. Mitchell, As CATS’ website notes, “the would have. Should issues arise in the extra one-half cent sales tax to fund Jr., Carl Mumpower, Maria Ochoa, right-of-way and construction sched- J. Arthur Pope, Tula Robbins, review, some or all of the proposed cuts transit. The fund generates nearly $60 ule are contingent on qualifying for Thomas A. Roberg, David Stover, might be reversed, which would lower million per year. federal funding.” CJ Robert Stowe III, Andy Wells cost-effectiveness. Board of Directors Perhaps more ominously, the FTA noted that existing bids the TTA has re- ceived might soon be outdated, further Carolina Journal is a monthly journal raising costs. of news, analysis, and commentary on state and local government and public policy issues Enough local funds? in North Carolina. To make matters worse, the FTA ©2005 by The John Locke Foundation gave the TTA the lowest grade possible Inc. All opinions expressed in bylined articles on its Capital Cost Estimate and Plan- are those of the authors and do not necessarily ning Assumptions. The TTA gets tax reflect the views of the editors of CJ or the staff and board of the John Locke Foundation. revenue from a $5 vehicle registration Material published herein may be reprinted as fee and a 5 percent tax on short-term long as appropriate credit is given. Submis- auto and light-truck rentals. sions and letters are welcome and should be The federal agency found this was directed to the editor. more than adequate to cover the rail line’s and TTA’s bus service-projected CJ readers wanting more information operating losses. FTA officials were con- between monthly issues can call 919-828-3876 cerned, however, whether these sources and ask for Carolina Journal Weekly Re- were adequate to cover the 20 percent of port, delivered each weekend by e-mail, or visit the project’s cost borne locally. CarolinaJournal.com for news, links, and ex- “The capital financial plan is heav- clusive content updated each weekday. Those ily influenced by optimistic assumptions interested in education, higher education, or local government should also ask to receive in the operating financial plan regard- weekly e-letters covering these issues. ing growth in passenger revenues and operating costs, which allow a greater CAROLINA March 2006 JOURNAL North Carolina  Funding Gaps and Delays Plague State’s Highway Projects

Continued from Page 1 way projects. Many of the “projects” of the intrastate The N.C. Department of Transportation estimates system are large-scale it faces a $30 billion shortfall over the next 25 years. endeavors. For example, The Triangle’s funding gap alone totals nearly $8 bil- widening all of N.C. 24 lion over the next 20 years. to four lanes from Char- Things aren’t necessarily better with the state’s lotte to Morehead City is existing roads. A 1998 performance review, prepared included. by KPMG Peat Marwick for the Office of the State The state is further Auditor, noted a decline in the condition of second- divided into seven distri- ary roads, with a significant increase in the NCDOT’s bution regions, with re- resurfacing backlog and corresponding increase in maining intrastate miles funds spent patching up multiple potholes. Again, to complete (25 percent the problems persist. weight), population (50 Slow work, such as that shown above on the incompleted I-540 in Raleigh, is common “We’re in limbo,” said Tom Crosby, vice president percent weight), and a on projects throughout the state. (CJ photo by Don Carrington) for communications for the AAA Carolinas. one-seventh distribution Crosby notes that the basic problems facing the each (25 percent weight) used to determine each distri- North Carolina’s Urban Transportation Needs, issued state’s highway system have been apparent for some bution region’s share each year. In 2004, the legislature its final report in December. time, but politicians haven’t been willing to fix the approved using intrastate highway money within dis- North Carolina’s population is growing rapidly, system. Crosby doubts things will change until the tribution regions on other major highways if the money the commission noted, and the number of miles North public more strongly demands change. could be used immediately on designated highways. Carolians are driving is growing even faster. A lot faster: Until the Assembly undertakes meaningful The change essentially made the extra funds associated The number of miles driven is growing at about 1.4 reform, conditions will only get worse on the high- with the Highway Trust Fund permanent. times the rate of population growth. As workers live ways. • 6.5 percent goes to help fund municipal road farther from their jobs — more than half of Stokes and systems Franklin counties’ workers, for example, commute to Many small pots of gold • 6.5 percent goes for paving dirt roads, or other jobs in other counties — urban traffic woes threaten secondary road improvements. economic growth in the state as a whole. Though North Carolina spends billions of dollars The state has a number of different funds to ad- “Given the magnitude of the Statewide funding each year on its highway system, it’s not accurate to dress road maintenance, including accounts specifi- shortfall, it is clear that no single funding, financing, think of the state as having a single big pot of money cally for urban roads, primary roads, secondary roads, or policy solution exists to solve all of the challenges covering all the roadwork of different sorts. State bridges, contract resurfacing, and a flexible mainte- facing North Carolina’s large and small metropolitan law and Department of Transportation practice has nance account. regions, ” the panel of legislators, local officials, and rather created a num- Allocation of transportation professionals wrote. ber of smaller, sepa- DOT Highway Trust Fund these funds is deter- “Rather, a host of solutions — implemented in rate accounts, each mined by funding concert in each region, based on the region’s unique designated for specific Program 2005-06 2006-07 formulas, this time needs — will be required to prevent a decline in mo- purposes, usually in Program Administration $ 41,295,740 $ 42,918,720 established by the NC- bility in the State,” the report said. specific locations. Transfer to General Fund $ 252,558,117 $ 252,663,009 DOT. Secondary-road Among the potential solutions the panel rec- When a project Intrastate Highways $ 472,112,366 $ 496,924,658 maintenance money, ommended the legislature consider was suspending can’t be built or the Urban Loops $ 190,902,579 $ 200,935,637 for example, is allotted transfers from the Highway Trust Fund to the General condition of a specific Dirt Roads $ 86,825,599 $ 90,358,988 Aid to Municipalities $ 49,535,599 $ 52,138,988 on a county system, Fund, which would make more than an additional $250 state road deteriorates, based upon the num- million a year available for highway construction. it’s typically because Total $1,093,230,000 $1,135,940,000 ber of paved miles and The commission also suggested the state re-ex- there isn’t enough unpaved miles in the amine how it allocates its scarce road dollars, that the money available in Source: N.C. Dept. of Transportation jurisdiction. Funds to existing funding formulas were not adequate. the account for that maintain urban roads, “The current State highway funding allocation sort of work in that meanwhile, are allo- formula is not designed to target resources to those part of the state. cated to the NCDOT’s 14 geographic divisions, based urban and rural areas with critical mobility needs. In The Highway Trust Fund, which pays for many upon urban lane-miles and population in the division. addition, several vital transportation priorities — such of the state’s most important road projects, highlights Only in the case of contract resurfacing, with money as Interstate reconstruction in both rural and urban this subdivision of money. In 1989, the legislature raised allocated by formula to divisions and then to counties, areas — currently have no dedicated funding sources,” the gasoline tax and other taxes and fees to address are pavement needs considered. the commission’s report said. a perceived backlog of road projects. The additional “The effect of these present formulas is that the The panel called for the Assembly to “review the revenue went into a special account, the Highway Trust differing condition levels of the system in different components and distribution region boundaries of the Fund, to be used for specific road projects designated regions of the state are not considered, yet they play a current highway funding allocation formula to insure by the Assembly. The higher taxes were to end when major role in repair costs,” UNC-Charlotte transporta- that both urban and rural transportation needs are all trust fund projects were complete. tion studies Professor David Hartgen wrote in a 2004 being met for the near- and long-term.” It should also The act originally creating the trust fund pro- study of the condition of the state’s roads. create an “Interstate Maintenance Fund” not subject vided that $170 million be transferred from it to the The current system also produces large varia- to the current funding formulas. General Fund each year. Since 2001, transfers to the tions in road conditions between counties, from a Additional use of toll roads, high-occupancy toll General Fund have been increased to more than $250 high of 27.2 percent of pavement in poor condition in lanes, “junior freeways” (freeways built to less than million per year. Ashe County to a low of roads in acceptable shape in interstate highway standards), and issuing bonds As might be imagined, the trust fund project list Yancey County. The average county had 8.19 percent backed by future federal highway receipts were among was influenced by the political realities of the day. The of its roads in poor condition. In 17 counties at least the proposals made by the panel. trust fund distribution formula is: 15 percent of roads were in poor condition. “This is to give the General Assembly a basis, • 25.1 percent goes to build partial or complete Hartgen also found in his study the amount of an understanding, of what we need to do,” said Rep. urban loops around specified cities. The legislation pavement in poor condition increased by 93 miles per Drew Saunders, D-Mecklenburg, chairman of the com- originally designated projects in Asheville, Charlotte, year between 1998 and 2004. mission, at the time the report came out. Whether the Durham, Greensboro, Raleigh, Wilmington, and legislature actually decides to seriously examine any Winston-Salem as eligible for urban loop funds. The Fixing the problem of these proposals remains to be seen. Assembly has added loop projects in Gaston County, Until then, drivers such as Walker will continue Greenville, and Fayetteville. Urban loop funds are the In 2004, the Assembly created a special committee to wait for key projects such as a U.S. 74 Bypass rare case where funding decisions are discretionary. to examine the transportation needs of urban areas. around Monroe to be built. CJ • 62 percent for 29 designated intrastate high- The panel, the Blue Ribbon Commission To Study March 2006 CAROLINA  North Carolina JOURNAL Downplayed danger of Kelo-type takings in N.C. N.C. League of Municipalities Backed New London in Court Case

By PAUL CHESSER recommended that NLC file the amicus areas” or if “there is a clear and pres- Associate Editor curiae brief backing New London. ent danger that the area will become RALEIGH “This case deals with an essential blighted.” he state’s League of Municipali- local government tool for economic North Carolina law allows for ties, despite claiming that what development,” Borut said in an article eminent domain as long as there is a happened in a controversial emi- published in NLC’s weekly newslet- “redevelopment plan” in the cases of Tnent domain case in Connecticut could ter Oct. 18, 2004. “While it is one case blight. not happen in North Carolina, filed an involving one city, a Supreme Court In the Supreme Court’s Kelo rul- amicus brief in November 2004 on behalf decision stopping New London from ing, Justice John Paul Stevens wrote for of the city of New London, Conn., in its using eminent domain to implement the majority opinion that “those who successful Supreme Court case. this economic development plan would govern the City [of New London] were Defenders of private property have major ramifications for every city not confronted with the need to remove rights say that should concern those in America.” blight…but their determination that the who worry that government can use Borut and Hankins also co-wrote area was sufficiently distressed to justify eminent domain powers for question- an editorial for the same issue of the a program of economic rejuvenation is able policies. newsletter, further explaining why entitled to our deference.” Cathy Heath, a property rights the NLC and the 32 state municipality In an editorial for the July 2005 is- activist who runs the Web site www. leagues backed New London. sue of Southern City, Hankins wrote that stopncannexation.com, said enough “It is in the public interest for proposals to “tighten” North Carolina leeway and vagueness exist in North municipalities to pursue economic laws on eminent domain are unneces- Carolina’s statutes that local govern- development locally and regionally sary, because “the statutes provide ments could use eminent domain for because a healthy economy helps gen- detailed legal rights and remedies for economic development purposes. She erate the revenue necessary to provide property owners.” said laws addressing blighted properties The Kelo decision addressed a services and infrastructure needs of “Our good North Carolina courts should be of special concern to lawmak- situation in which a local economic the public,” they wrote. “At times, the will safeguard the rights of property ers reviewing the state statutes. development agency, with powers of ability to provide for the public good owners,” he wrote. “I look at our redevelopment laws, eminent domain given to it by the city, requires municipalities to exercise the But Daren Bakst, regulation policy and I look at other states’ redevelopment sought to condemn the properties of nine power of eminent domain granted by analyst for the John Locke Foundation laws,” Heath said, “and I see a wide-open owners of 15 homes in the city of New state authority.” (which publishes Carolina Journal), highway for the state of North Carolina London. The agency planned to obtain But Hankins insisted to Carolina said in a recent position paper that the to use those statutes to accomplish the the land and turn it over to a private Journal that North Carolina doesn’t state’s laws on blighted property are too same kinds of redevelopment.” developer, who would build offices, a give eminent-domain authority to local broadly defined. The state’s federation of cities and hotel, and a health club. governments for economic develop- “The law says buildings in ‘blight- towns joined similar organizations from Ellis Hankins, executive director ment purposes. He said from the NLC’s ed areas’ must cause harms, such as 31 other states, in filing an amicus curiae of the N.C. League of Municipalities, perspective, they were defending New impairing the ‘sound growth of the brief backing government eminent-do- said what happened in Connecticut is London from a local governing point community’ and being ‘conducive to ill main taking in the Kelo v. City of New not possible in North Carolina. of view. health,’” Bakst said. “How much growth London, Conn. case. “North Carolina law does not al- “In the amicus briefs filed by the is sound growth? The 5-4 court decision, which low our cities, counties, or local govern- NLC and the state municipal leagues, “North Carolina law needs a nar- allows government agencies to seize ments to do what New London did,” [we] were supporting states’ rights and row definition of blight, or it will be open private property from one owner and Hankins said. opposing judicial activism,” Hankins season on private property. Right now to give it to another private owner for Hankins also served as chair of said. its laws are so vague they are open to economic development purposes, led the Legal Advisory Committee to the State law allows local governments all kinds of interpretation.” to a grass-roots backlash across the National League of Cities, which also to create special agencies that may con- Hankins disagreed. nation. supported the City of New London. He sider redevelopment necessary not only “The North Carolina law on A special state House committee was asked by Donald Borut, executive for existing blight, as determined by a the definition of blight is very clear began studying North Carolina’s emi- director of the NLC, in 2004 to review its local planning commission, but also to and specific and limited, from our nent-domain laws in January. involvement in the case. The committee prevent “the creation of new blighted perspective,” he said. CJ Friends Throw Retirement Party for Former Ferry Director By DON CARRINGTON been Ferry Division director since 1993. the event was not a fund-raiser to help ers and Harbor Act, actual violations of Executive Editor On Jan. 20 he was placed on a 30-day pay Gaskill’s legal bills. both acts, and with making material false RALEIGH paid investigative leave. He resigned The federal indictment alleges that statements to federal officials. riends of former Ferry Division Feb. 1, the same day the state retirement Gaskill and others agreed in January Four other Ferry Division employ- Director Jerry Gaskill, 63, of Cedar system office received his retirement 2004 to force Ferry Division workboats ees have pleaded guilty in the case. They Island, planned to throw a retire- application in the mail. into the Corolla basin in order to create a all have private lawyers. The state will Fment party for him even though his The event was to take place noon to deeper channel, knowing that no permits not be paying for their legal expenses. abrupt departure from state government 4 p.m. March 4 at the Driftwood Camp- had been obtained for such an activity. “When DOT asked for outside counsel, was apparently not by choice. ground on Cedar Island. Lead organizer The indictment then alleges that May 6-7, we recommended that they require The announcement obtained by Larry Pittman, a Morehead City used-car 2004 Gaskill and others carried out the these employees to cover the cost if they Carolina Journal says the party, featuring dealer, said he and Gaskill have been operation to “prop wash” the channel. pled guilty or were found guilty. The a pig picking, is honoring Gaskill “for friends for 25 years. Pittman is expect- The indictment further alleges that June governor’s office approved that recom- his hard work and dedication to the NC ing 1,000 to 1,500 people for the event. 25, 2004 Gaskill signed a written false mendation,” N. C. Department of Justice Ferry Division.” “Gaskill has more friends than anyone I statement claiming that the creation of spokeswoman Noelle Talley told CJ. A federal grand jury indicted Gas- know in Carteret County,” he said. the channel was unintentional and sub- She said the same guidelines ap- kill on Jan. 18 on charges related to the Pittman said the “Donations Wel- mitted that statement to the U.S. Army ply to Gaskill who has hired Raleigh Department of Transportation’s efforts come” phrase on the invitation was to Corps of Engineers. lawyer Thomas Manning. Gaskill is to establish a passenger ferry service solicit funds to help defray the estimated He is charged with conspiracy to expected to appear in court on March across the Currituck Sound. Gaskill had $6,000 to $7,000 cost of the event. He said violate the Clean Water Act and the Riv- 20 to enter a plea. CJ CAROLINA March 2006 JOURNAL North Carolina  North Carolina’s New Identity-Theft Law Adds Protections

By MAXIMILIAN LONGLEY avoid paying the impostor’s credit-card Contributing Editor charges. Foley said some ID theft victims, RALEIGH when they try to report the crime and ajor provisions of a law on get a police report, are “bounced back identity theft, passed by the and forth” between their hometown General Assembly in Septem- police departments and police in other Mber, took effect in December. The law’s jurisdictions. intent was to make citizens’ personal Police don’t like to take ID theft information less accessible to thieves, cases because catching the perpetrators and to help victims of identification theft is difficult — “like catching a ghost,” put their lives back together. Foley said. Unresolved complaints could Under the Identity Theft Protection end up in the department’s unsolved- Act of 2005, consumers can order a credit- crime statistics, making the police and reporting company to put a “security the community look bad. freeze” on their personal information, Under North Carolina’s new law, preventing the company from disclosing the victim’s hometown police depart- information about the person unless he ment can make a report in an ID theft has temporarily unfrozen his account. case without including the case in the The new law also requires that unsolved-crime statistics. businesses destroy discarded records Norm Magnuson, vice president containing personal information. An- for public affairs of the Consumer Data other part of the act limits the ability of Industry Association, a credit industry- state agencies and private companies lobbying group in Washington, D.C., to collect and store individuals’ Social said that his organization initially op- Security numbers. expunged. People whose personal in- incidence of the crime, she said. posed security-freeze laws, and that it The legislature decided to delay formation is contained in certain public Putting a security freeze on a still considers such laws ineffective. the full implementation of the Social documents can apply to have the infor- credit report (as provided for in laws However, having concluded that Security provisions for about a year mation deleted. like North Carolina’s) helps guard the security-freeze legislation is “the will in the case of private businesses, and William McKinney at the N.C. information in the report from would- of the states,” Magnuson’s group is for about two years in the case of state Attorney General’s Office says ID theft be impersonators, Foley said. A freeze now pressing for a federal law on the agencies. A section of the new act re- is a “significant and growing problem can be “inconvenient” when making a subject, so that there can be “one set of quires companies to notify customers in the state.” genuine credit application, because any uniform rules.” of a “security breach,” defined as the The Federal Trade Commission, temporary unfreezing of information Companies should be required unauthorized disclosure of a customer’s which takes complaints about identity takes additional time and energy. Foley, only to tell customers about a security personal information in circumstances theft, reported that it received com- nevertheless, said she has placed a freeze breach if there’s a real risk of harm, where there is a danger of ID theft. plaints about 5,623 North Carolina ID on her own information. Magnuson said. Notifying customers of Another provision in the law al- theft cases in 2004, or 65.8 for every Allowing the police in a victim’s all security breaches, even the harmless lows police in the victim’s home county 100,000 population in North Carolina. hometown to take ID theft reports, as ones, would be like “the boy who cried to take reports of ID theft, regardless of Linda Foley, founder of the ID provided in North Carolina’s law, ad- wolf,” Magnuson said. where the thief carried out his crime. Theft Resource Center in California, dresses an important problem, Foley Of the 130 security breaches If an identity thief commits crimes in said the FTC’s statistics undercount the said. If the police don’t make a report, in 2005, only one was from a credit another person’s name, the act allows incidence of identity theft. There are an ID theft victim doesn’t have the of- bureau, and almost half were from the victim to get his criminal record “no reliable statistics anywhere” on the ficial documentation he might need to state agencies, he said. CJ Gay Seminar Teacher Under Investigation for Misconduct

By PAUL CHESSER According to a report in the Win- at the University of North Carolina at sexual agenda.” Associate Editor ston-Salem Journal on Friday, Wiseman Greensboro. DPI and Governor’s School of- RALEIGH is being investigated for allegations The seminar was heavily criticized ficials defended the seminar, saying it co-teacher of a controversial of sexual activity with a 17-year-old by James and Beverly Burrows, whose was optional for students to attend, as seminar on homosexuality at student. The report was confirmed to son attended the school last year and said is the Governor’s School itself. last year’s taxpayer-funded Carolina Journal by a source involved in their son returned home from the school The state budget fully funds the AGovernor’s School is under investigation the investigation. “confused” about homosexuality as a program, with $1.3 million set aside for in Forsyth County for alleged sexual Wiseman, according to the Jour- result of the seminar, and that they have it this fiscal year. Students are nominated misconduct with a student. nal, is a social had to seek family based on specific areas of academic or Susan Wiseman helped lead a lec- studies teacher at counseling. performing-arts excellence, and pay ture based on a book called “The New East Forsyth High “We feel that nothing to attend, other than the cost Gay Teenager,” given at the Governor’s School. She is also “We feel that our rights this was totally to travel to the schools. School West. The six-week Governor’s listed as a youth as parents have been vi- inappropriate for At least two other families were School is conducted every summer, with coordinator for the students who also disturbed by the changes in their 400 students each at two locations: Salem the Parents, Fami- olated by this program.” were 15, 16, and children after returning from the College in Winston-Salem (West) and lies, and Friends 17 years old,” the Governor’s School last year, based on Meredith College in Raleigh (East). of Lesbians and James and Beverly Burrows Burrowses wrote students’ writings on the MySpace In- The residential program draws Gays (PFLAG)- In letter to DPI to officials at the ternet website. public high school students who are Winston-Salem. State Department Wiseman has not been charged approaching their senior years, and who Wiseman co- of Public Instruc- with any crimes. Vanessa Jeter, a spokes- are nominated by their high schools’ led the “New Gay tion last August. woman for the Department of Public teachers and administrators. Students Teenager” seminar “We feel that our Instruction, was unaware of the investi- are identified as “intellectually gifted,” with a 19-year-old office assistant at the rights as parents have been violated by gation and said she would make sure the and the program “integrat(es) aca- Governor’s School — Wesley Nemenz this program.” agency’s attorneys were aware of it. demic disciplines, the arts, and unique — who is homosexual, a former Gov- The Burrowses accused the Gov- “We would take that kind of courses….” ernor’s School attendee, and a student ernor’s School of having a “pro-homo- thing very seriously,” Jeter said. CJ March 2006 CAROLINA  CJ Special JOURNAL Text of speech by Winston S. Churchill III Confronting the Challenge of Islamic Fundamentalism

[Editor’s note: The following is an ad- summate folly. But how many whom they held to be heretics for not dress by Winston S. Churchill III, grandson Already Judeo- know that he adhering to the Wahabi creed — but of Winston Churchill, given at the 16th An- Christian Eu- also warned not anymore. nual Dinner of the John Locke Foundation rope is under the world of Today the combination of the oil on Feb. 10, 2006 in Raleigh, N.C.] siege from a the dangers of wealth of Saudi Arabia and the supine tidal wave of Islamic Fun- weakness of the Saudi royal family Islamic immi- damentalism? which — as the price for not having their t is both an honour and a pleasure gration. The I certainly did own behaviour subjected to scrutiny to be your guest here tonight and admission of not! and public criticism by these austere, to have the privilege of addressing Turkey would On 14 extremist clerics — has bank-rolled the Ithe John Locke Foundation. First and hasten its de- June 1921, hard Wahabi fundamentalist movement, and foremost, may I congratulate you for mise. While I on the heels given these fanatical zealots a global honouring the memory of John Locke, have a great of the Cairo reach to their vicious creed of hatred who was very much involved in the regard for the Conference, at and extremism. establishment of the Governments of Turks, the only which he had The consequence has been that the Carolinas and who, most important democracy in presided over the Wahabis have been able to export of all, was one of the great Philosophers the Muslim the re-shaping their exceptionally intolerant brand of of the English-speaking world. world and stal- of the Middle Islamic fundamentalism from Mauri- Locke’s message — the vital im- wart members East, includ- tania and Morocco on Africa’s Atlantic portance of resisting authoritarianism of NATO, I am Wiinston S. Churchill III speaking at the John Locke ing the creation shores, through more than two dozen — is as relevant to the strife-torn times firmly opposed Foundation’s 16th anniversary dinner on Feb. 10 in of modern day countries including Bosnia, Chechnya, of the world in which we live, as it to their admis- Raleigh (Photo by Don Carrington) Iraq, he warned Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Middle was in the strife-torn times of the 17th sion to the EU. the House of East, to as far afield as the Philippines Century. Authoritarianism constantly I would accord them most-favoured Commons: and East Timor in the Pacific. This is the rears its ugly head, even within our own nation status, but not the right to settle ‘A large number of [Saudi Arabia’s stark challenge that today confronts the societies on both sides of the Atlantic, in in Western Europe and become EU King] Bin Saud’s followers belong to the Western world and I fear it will be with so many guises and disguises, and in citizens. Wahabi sect, a form of Mohammedanism us, not just for a matter of years, but every field, be it religion, government The scale of the problem confront- which bears, roughly speaking, the same perhaps even for generations. or the military. ing Europe today is epitomised by relationship to orthodox Islam as the Just in the past two weeks the At its most extreme, authoritarian- France, which has a Muslim community most militant form of Calvinism would temperature in the Middle East has ism is exemplified by the ‘-isms’ of the of some 6 million, or 10 percent of its have borne to Rome in the fiercest times risen markedly with three significant 20th Century — Communism, Fascism population. But, if you take the popula- of [Europe’s] religious wars. developments. First, we have seen the and Nazism. The Fascists and Nazis were tion aged 20 and below, the figure rockets The Wahabis profess a life of ex- wild and furious reaction, whipped responsible for the deaths of more than to 30 percent, such is the birthrate of ceeding austerity, and what they practice up by firebrand clerics throughout the 30 million human beings, while more the immigrant communities. In other themselves they rigorously enforce on Islamic world, to the publication some than 50 million are estimated to have words, within one others. They hold five months ago in a Danish newspa- been murdered by Stalin and the Russian further generation, it as an article of per of a cartoon depicting the prophet Communists, while Mao-Tse-Tung and France will be a “Provided we have the duty, as well as with a smoking bomb in his turban, as the Chinese Communists are believed to Muslim country of faith, to kill all tattered suicide bombers were being have accounted for some 80 million. — a truly horrify- courage to stay the who do not share greeted at the Muslim Pearly Gates by But today a new challenge — an- ing prospect. their opinions and a gate-keeper shooing them away & other ‘ism’ — confronts us, and that is At the same course, I am convinced to make slaves of shouting: ‘Get lost! We’ve run out of the Challenge of Islamic Fundamental- time it is vital that, their wives and Virgins!’ The fury that this mild piece ism. Extremist Islam has declared war in our pursuit of that we can, in the end, children. Women of satire engendered, epitomises the on the rest of the world, as evidenced the men and wom- prevail. Any alternative have been put to clash of civilisations that is the key factor by their ruthless attacks across the globe en of terror — we death in Wahabi confronting us today. — overwhelmingly targeted at innocent do all we can not is too terrible to contem- villages for simply Secondly, the stunning election civilians. Beside the outrage of Nine- to alienate these appearing in the victory in the Palestinian elections Eleven, the bombings in Madrid, in Bali, large Muslim com- plate.” streets. of Hamas — a terrorist organisation in London and, most recently, in Jordan munities already It is a penal committed to the destruction of Israel come to mind. established among Winston S. Churchill III offence to wear — provided a rude shock to those in Those who have declared Jihad us. For, without the Speaking at the 16th a silk garment. Washington who naively imagined that against the West, and Western values, active support of anniversary dinner of the Men have been democracy would provide the answer such as freedom of speech, are doing the Muslim com- John Locke Foundation killed for smoking to the problems of the Middle East. For all in their power to mobilise against us munities, we shall a cigarette and, as many within the Beltway, free elections the large Muslim communities living in never excise this for the crime of have been an article of faith, even though our midst. In North America, there are deadly cancer in alcohol, the most it was in a free election that Hitler first an estimated six million Muslims in the our midst. energetic supporter came to power, before establishing his USA, plus a further three-quarter mil- Intriguingly, the dangers of ex- of the temperance cause in this country Nazi dictatorship. lion in Canada; while in the European tremist Islam were foreseen by Winston falls far behind them. Austere, intolerant, Such is the anger of the Moslem Union, they number an estimated 20 Churchill all of 85 years ago, as I discov- well-armed, and blood-thirsty, in their world against the West, inflamed by million, including nearly 2 million in ered to my amazement, while compiling own regions the Wahabis are a distinct extremist clerics and fanned by the Al- Britain. Unlike most other categories my most recent book “NEVER GIVE factor which must be taken into account, Jazeera & Al-Arabia television networks, of migrant, the Muslims are reluctant IN! The Best of Winston Churchill’s and they have been, and still are, very that truly democratic and free elections to assimilate and, all too often, wish to Speeches.” dangerous to the holy cities of Mecca would result in the election of Funda- pursue their own agenda. Churchill is, of course, well-known and Medina….. mentalist governments throughout the Unbelievably, Washington is urg- for his gift of prescience and, specifically, In Churchill’s day, of course, the Muslim world. It is a frightening fact, ing Europe to admit Turkey to the EU. for being the first to warn of the menace of viciousness and cruelty of the Wahabis that in 50 Muslim countries countless Were that to happen, the Muslim popula- Hitler and Nazism as early as 1932, and was confined to the Saudi Arabia pen- millions of Muslims tell pollsters that tion of Europe would sky-rocket to 100 of the Soviet threat in his famous “Iron insula, and their atrocities were directed million — an act, in my view, of con- Curtain” speech in 1946 in Fulton, Mo. exclusively against their fellow Muslims, Continued as “Confronting” on Page 7 CAROLINA March 2006 JOURNAL CJ Special  Confronting the Challenge of Islamic Fundamentalism Continued from Page 6 This time it will not be so easy, their lives to establish a free Iraq. destruction? I pray that they are not, as the mullahs have dispersed their Gravest of all, we should be hand- and I call to mind the words of my they regard Osama Bin Laden & Ayman nuclear facilities across 16 sites and built ing a victory of gigantic proportions to Grandfather, addressing the Canadian al-Zawahiri as more trustworthy than them deep underground, making them our sworn enemies. Let no one imagine Parliament on New Year’s Day 1941, in President Bush. far more difficult to attack. But with that by pulling out of Iraq, the threat which — referring to the British nation The third and by far the most 500 ‘bunker-busting’ bombs from the will simply evaporate. On the contrary, dwelling around the globe, but it applies serious development, is the decision U.S. and precision- it will redouble, it equally to our American cousins today of the Iranian government of President guidance tech- will come closer — when he declared: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to remove nology they will “Precipitate withdrawal to home and our “We are a tough & hardy people! the U.N. seals from its nuclear research certainly make a enemies will have We have not travelled across the cen- facilities. He it is who not only denies mess of the place. [from Iraq] is the counsel established in Iraq turies, across the oceans, across the the Holocaust ever happened, but who The whole Mus- the very base that, mountains & across the prairies, because declares that Israel is a ‘tumour’ that lim world will be of defeatism and cow- by our defeat of we’re made of sugar candy!” should be ‘wiped off the map’! Some enflamed with out- the Taliban, we In conclusion, I would remind Western analysts state that the Iranian rage and Iran’s re- ardice.” have denied them you — and especially the legislators on president doesn’t really mean what he action may well be in Afghanistan. We Capitol Hill — of Winston Churchill’s says. There were, of course, many who to deploy 100,000 Winston S. Churchill III shall see a desper- words to the House of Commons on said just that of Hitler’s “Mein Kampf,” guerrilla fighters to ately weakened becoming prime minister in May 1940, and we saw the result. Iraq to fight the Americans and British United States, with its armed forces un- which applies every bit as much to the Having reported events — includ- — not a happy thought. dermined and demoralised, increasingly situation that confronts us today: ing two wars — in the Middle East over But even before these develop- at the mercy of our terrorist enemies. “You ask: What is our aim? I can the past 45 years, I think I know the ments, siren voices could already be Precipitate withdrawal is the coun- answer in one word. It is victory. Vic- Israelis well enough to say that Israel is heard on Capitol Hill, raising the cry: sel of defeatism and cowardice which, tory at all costs, victory in spite of all not about to wait to find out whether or ‘Bring the Boys home!’ I tell you: Noth- if it holds sway, will immeasurably in- terror. However long or hard the road not the Iranian president means what he ing could be more disastrous than if, at crease the dangers that today confront, may be; for without victory there is no says. In 1981 Israel took decisive steps this juncture, the United States were to not just America, but the entire Western survival.” to take out Saddam Hussein’s Osirak cut and run. It would, at a stroke, un- world. It is something for which we shall Provided we have the courage to nuclear facility with a long-range air- dermine those forces of moderation we pay a terrible price in the years ahead. stay the course, I am convinced that we strike. I do not see how she can fail to do are seeking to establish in power, betray When great nations go to war — and they can, in the end, prevail. Any alternative the same in the case of the even greater our troops as they fight a difficult, but should do so only as a last resort — they is too terrible to contemplate. There are threat posed to Israel by a nuclear-armed necessary, battle, and break faith with must expect to suffer grievous losses and no quick, easy solutions; on the contrary Iran. those of our soldiers who have sacrificed must commit to war with an unconquer- it will be a long, hard slog. able resolve to secure victory. But more leadership is needed In Iraq the United States has lost from on high and, above all, more guts some 2,200 men and women, Britain just and determination if we are to see this over 100. Compare that to the first day through to victory. of the Battle of the Somme — 1 July 1916 Let us fight the good fight — — when the British Army in a single day, and let us fight it together! How nay, before breakfast, lost 55,000 men pleased my Grandfather would be killed, wounded or missing in action. to know that — 40 years on from his Did we talk of quitting? death — the Anglo-American alliance What has happened to the mighty is still strong and that British and United States? Is it going soft? Are the American soldiers stand shoulder-to- elected representatives of the American shoulder in Iraq and in Afghanistan, people ready to surrender to those who confronting the peril of the hour! threaten their homeland — indeed their Long may we stand togeth- civilian population — with death and er! God bless America! CJ March 2006 CAROLINA  Education JOURNAL

State School Briefs From 8th grade to college

Mecklenburg PR panel ‘Learn and Earn’ Program’s Impact in Future A conservative radio host. A former ambassador. By HAL YOUNG and faculty will better enable teachers same material. Uptown bankers and West Contributing Editor to detect and help faltering students, Turner explained how the Early Charlotte ministers. RALEIGH he said. College high schools’ approach trims They’ve all been appointed to n the midst of his 2004 re-election Meg Turner, principal of Bun- wasted effort from the curriculum to a committee charged with finding campaign, Gov. Mike Easley an- combe County Early College in Ashe- compress a six-year course sequence a way to restore voter confidence nounced a plan to create high schools ville, sees her school as one part of the into five. “We blend courses, eliminate in the way Charlotte-Mecklenburg Ion college campuses, add a year to the larger effort to improve graduation rates. duplicated objectives, and find a -dif builds schools, and developing curriculum, and graduate students The “Middle College” program that ferent way of looking at high school a new plan to pay for them, The with diplomas and associates degrees preceded BCEC, she said, “was truly a credit, college credit, and how they’re Charlotte Observer reports. at the same time. In his press release, drop-out prevention program. We only awarded,” she said. For example, BCEC Mecklenburg County com- the governor outlined contrasting goals took juniors and is negotiating with missioners endorsed forming the for the “Learn and Earn Early College seniors who were a host campus, 35-member committee in Decem- High School Initiative,” saying this “new truly on the verge Asheville-Bun- ber, a month after voters rejected model of high school” would give stu- of dropping out.” “I think it’s really great combe Technical dents a boost for future jobs with higher The Early College Community Col- a record $427 million school bond to cause community proposal. County commissioners, educational requirements. model is totally lege, to adjust the school board members, and mayors A year and half into the project, different, both in colleges and the pub- college’s U.S. his- around the county were all asked there are 14 such schools in operation, demographics and tory syllabus to ad- to appoint one member apiece, 23 more planned for this fall, and a goal in approach, she lic schools to sit down dress high school and 26 had been appointed by of 75 by 2008. The first students will not said. requirements, too. mid-February. graduate until the program is statewide, “The way I together and work on This required a Former Gov. Jim Martin, though, and leaders say Learn and Earn’s like to think about developing a common waiver from the who has agreed to be chairman of true impact will not be known until that is the more Department of the group, said he would release sometime in the future. options a school curriculum.” Public Instruction, the names of his nine appointees Geoff Coltrane, director of research district has for but it will elimi- soon. and communications for the North schools, the more Ken Whitehurst nate one year of Martin said his committee Carolina New Schools Project, which likely a kid will N.C. Community duplicated study administers Learn and Earn in part- find what he needs, for the subject. can’t rebuild public confidence on College System its own. For example, he said he nership with the Department of Public and the less likely Ken White- hopes to see the school board adopt Instruction, explained the program’s he’ll be to drop out. hurst, who over- many recommendations from a focus in terms of both academics and Early College cre- sees Learn and recent citizens task force report. “soft skills.” ates another alternative,” she said. Earn programs for the N.C. Community “The goal of the Learn and Earn Unlike either accelerated programs College System, sees this as one of the schools is to prepare students to meet the for gifted students or efforts to target at- key advantages of the project. “I think Science, math? No problem needs of the high tech, biotech, and other risk students for assistance, Learn and it’s really great to cause community jobs which are coming to replace those Earn is specifically looking for a diverse colleges and the public schools to sit If improving science and math jobs lost in the state since 2000,” Coltrane demographic. According to program down together and work on developing education is suddenly a national said. “They need to be ready to work guidelines, students are selected to re- a common curriculum.” priority, someone apparently forgot in teams, to communicate orally and in flect the local population. All of them, Turner said her 52 students, all to tell the parents and the students, writing, and be more analytical in their though, are expected to complete the ninth-graders, are taking a criminal- The News & Observer of Raleigh work to be prepared for the demands of college level curriculum. justice class this semester, which will reports. 21st century work and citizenship.” While the governor’s initiative count as a high school elective. Younger In a new poll, 57 percent of To do this, Learn and Earn creates has received national attention, it is not students mainly finish up prerequisite parents say “things are fine” with five-year high schools on the campus of the only way high schoolers can pick high school classes before tackling full the amount of math and science be- local colleges or universities. Ninth- and up college credits. In fact, with its cap course loads of college work in years ing taught in their children’s public 10th-grade programs are redesigned to of 400 students at each campus, Learn four and five. schools. High school parents seem prepare students for college work as and Earn is one of the more-limited There are other challenges embed- particularly content — 70 percent of early as their first year, with the ultimate alternatives. ded in the rapidly expanding program. them say their children get the right goal of leaving “grade 13” with a two- Dual enrollment, where high- Whitehurst said that community col- amount of science and math. year degree or two years of transfer- schoolers enroll in community college leges provide the classroom space while Students aren’t too worried, able credit. Schools are limited to 400 classes alongside traditional students, DPI provides the teachers and students. either, according to the poll released students, with extra counseling staff to and Huskins programs, where public Facilities to accommodate both Learn Feb. 14 by Public Agenda, a public assist with the transition from eighth schools contract with colleges to teach and Earn and the colleges’ traditional opinion research group that tracks grade to a college campus. certain courses, have existed for a num- students might become an issue as the education trends. But while emphasizing the benefits ber of years. While uncommon, some high schools grow, he said. Only half of children in grades of college credit, Easley also promoted energetic students have completed the There is also potential for mixing six to 12 say that understanding sci- Learn and Earn as a dropout-reduction full requirements to pick up their as- more than curriculum on campus, as ences and having strong math skills tool. “[W]e are still losing too many stu- sociates degree while still attending a high school students, some as young are essential for them to succeed in dents between grades nine and 12 who traditional four-year high school. as 13, share classes with adult students. life after high school. drop out,” he said. “This plan will give Advanced Placement courses in Whitehurst points to the dual enrollment This is not what the people in high school students another option that the traditional high school are another experience of the colleges, and doesn’t charge of the country want to hear. provides them with a marketable degree alternative. According to the state De- foresee a problem. “This is not our first Congressional leaders, governors, that prepares them for the workforce.” partment of Public Instruction, more time in this area,” he said. corporate executives, top scientists Coltrane said it is too early to than 34,000 North Carolina students Turner takes it seriously, though. — all of them have urgently called measure what impact Learn and Earn took AP courses last year, sitting for “[W]e really have to be careful for stu- for schools to raise the rigor and is having on graduation rates; nearly all 62,358 final exams, which could earn dent safety,” she said. “When we were amount of math and science taught the 800 students involved with the pro- each of them three or more credit hours the Middle College, those were all 16- in school. In his State of the Union gram are ninth- and 10th-graders. “We in college. Some private schools also and 17-year-olds, but 14 is a different address, President Bush made the have some initial numbers, but nothing offer the courses, and homeschoolers matter.” matter a national priority. CJ firm,” Coltrane said. Smaller schools and can use a variety of online programs “It’s important to families that longer relationships between students and correspondence classes to cover the we stay on top of this,” she said. CJ CAROLINA March 2006 JOURNAL Education  All Eyes in N.C. Are Focused Commentary On Law Dubbed ‘Black Eye Bill’ Know What’s Being Spent — And How By KAREN WELSH eye exam was performed by a pediatri- our decades have passed since tion Myths, shared a few ideas with Contributing Editor cian and not an optometrist is not only George Harrison penned the “20/20” viewers. According to Dr. RALEIGH shortsighted public policy, it is billing lyrics to the Beatles song “Tax- Greene, public education needs an ll eyes are on North Carolina children $90 for a constitutional right to Fman,” railing against severe British infusion of incentive-based reforms, Senate Bill 622, a law passed in be educated.” tax rates. While it’s unlikely we’ll in the form of choice and account- August 2005 by lockstep legisla- The special provision is an “inap- ever be taxed like the Beatles were in ability. Choice (and competition) Ators that forces all children to receive propriate and inefficient way to meet the 1960s, most of us still have strong pressures schools to improve or risk eye exams by an ophthalmologist or the vision care needs of children,” wrote feelings about our modern- losing students (and the optometrist before the children enter Peter J. Morris MD, president of the day tax collectors. In a few revenue they generate). kindergarten or face expulsion from North Carolina Pediatric Society. short weeks, we will begin Strong accountability public school. W. Zachery Bridges MD, presi- the tedious process of sifting systems reward schools This newest fee, esti- dent of The North Carolina through our 1040s and 1099s. and educators for high- mated to cost $90 to $120 per Society of Eye Physicians & Meanwhile, state legislators quality work and sanc- child, is a financial burden Surgeons, said his organiza- and local officials will begin tion them for mediocre on families that have small tion has “serious concerns” debating how to spend our performance. These children, said Senate Re- over the new legislation. He money. The 2006 short ses- are good ideas, though publican Leader Phil Berger, said the new law goes against sion of the North Carolina they’re destined for a who represents Guilford and the findings of a multi-disci- General Assembly will un- chilly reception from Rockingham counties. He plinary task force, including doubtedly feature heated the education establish- said the bill was slipped in both ophthalmologists and discussions over funding; at Lindalyn ment. at the last minute after the optometrists, that addressed the local level, county com- Kakadelis What should you Democrat majority met in the issue in 2004. missions will begin setting do when the educa- private. House Speaker Jim He said a recommenda- yearly budgets. tional funding debate Black, who pushed Now dubbed “The the eye-exam bill tion was sent to all legislators, Where does our tax money go? ignites in your local area? Start by Black Eye Bill,” the measure requesting an expansion in Despite incessant claims of insuf- knowing how much is spent on ed- was introduced by Jim Black, the vision screening compo- ficient funding by the education bu- ucation. In 2003-04, North Carolina D-Mecklenburg, a private optometrist, nent of the existing health assessment reaucracy, a lot of it goes to public spent more than a total of $9 billion who will gain financially if the new law that children must receive before en- schools. But what kind of return are on public education. But even more stands as currently written. tering kindergarten — not a mandated we getting on our investment? important, know how money is Berger said that the eye test was not comprehensive eye exam. Jim Causby, Recently, John Stossel of ABC’s spent. Include all education dollar included in the first draft of the House executive director of the North Carolina “20/20” hosted a documentary, totals in your calculations — for or Senate budgets and that it wasn’t in School Superintendents’ Association, “Stupid in America,” a stinging federal, state, and local spending. the House revised bill that came back and Katherine Joyce, interim executive indictment of our monopoly-con- Be forewarned that school systems to the Senate floor. Berger said the new director of the N.C. Association of School trolled public education system. In traditionally separate operational law was slipped in during secret budget Administrators, submitted almost the program, Stossel reveals that expenditures from costs associated negotiations and smacks of cronyism. identical letters, stating the law will put while we may be spending our- with facility funding and debt on He said it should be an eye-open- school principals and administrators in selves into oblivion, we’re getting bonds (that county commissioners ing sign of how business is done in the an unconscionable position. little back by way of results. Adjust- pay), so totals often appear signifi- state capital. “Democrats met behind “Unfortunately, thousands of ing for inflation, the national aver- cantly less than they really are. In closed doors to iron out their budgetary school principals and other adminis- age for per-pupil spending doubled reality, many counties spend more differences — to reach compromises,” trators in our state face the specter of between 1971 and 2001, from $4,479 than 50 percent of their total budget he said. “Unfortunately, all too many standing in the schoolhouse door and to $8,996. Yet, achievement for the on education, leaving little for li- things get into the final bill without denying children entry into kindergarten average public school student has braries, parks, and other programs. much knowledge from the people who if they are to uphold state law,” they remained stagnant. International The Alliance can provide you are supposed to know what’s going stressed. “…If this statute is not repealed, comparisons provide more bad with concise, factual information on on. Some people would say it’s horse schools throughout North Carolina will news: When American students education spending. Our new bro- trading. It’s a real problem. It seems to be forced to either ignore state law, or take an international test at age 15, chure, “Paying the Price: Real Facts me this is some evidence of corruption bar 5-year-olds from their rightful seat they place 25th out of 40 countries. about Education Funding in North in our system.” in kindergarten. Surely this is not the Even at the state level, big Carolina,”sets the record straight Berger said the law was included in choice you intended.” spenders can’t back their expendi- on school funding in our state, and a lengthy conference report that revealed Leanne Winner, director of gov- tures up with results. In 2001-02, provides North Carolinians with the provision for the eye exams, hidden ernment relations for the North Caro- schools in the District of Columbia, a common-sense look at the data. in 300 pages of budgetary items. “We lina School Boards Association, asked our country’s top spenders overall, Contact me at 704-231-9767 or lka- only had 24 hours to read the report,” he legislators for a swift solution to the spent $15,489 per student. Utah and [email protected] to said. “At that point, it was procedurally problems the law has created. “This re- Mississippi, at the other end of the receive a copy. at a state when an amendment couldn’t quirement puts schools in an untenable spectrum, spent less than $6,000 Whatever your views on be made to take it out.” position,” she wrote. “School districts per pupil. Yet, children in Utah and education funding, know the facts. Backlash over the eye test has sent across the state will be forced to choose Mississippi consistently outperform Like it or not, your tax dollars sup- Democrats scurrying into the dark, as between complying with the eye exam D.C. students on the National As- port all of our state’s public schools both liberal and conservative child-ad- or the provisions of the North Carolina sessment of Educational Progress. — good and bad. Fortunately, as a vocate organizations have taken a strong Constitution.” Sure, the demographics are signifi- taxpayer and voter, you have the stand against the law and have written Although the Department of Pub- cantly different in these regions, but power to hold elected officials ac- North Carolina legislators, asking them lic Instruction did not push the bill, it it’s hard to believe an extra $9,000 countable for how they spend your to repeal the bill. appears the mostly Democrat-appointed per student doesn’t even things out money. If their financial steward- “Children should never be stopped leadership will require all educators to a little. ship is lacking, it may be time for an at the schoolhouse door because their follow the letter of the law. If more money won’t solve “adjustment.” CJ parents have not paid for an eye exam,” “We have no comment to (SB 622),” our problems, then what will? Jay wrote Brian Lewis, executive director of said DPI Media Relations Director Linda Greene, head of the Department of Covenant with North Carolina’s Chil- Fuller. “It wasn’t something we asked Education Reform at the University Lindalyn Kakadelis is director of dren, Inc. “And to deny a child access to for, and it was not a part of our legislative of Arkansas and author of Educa- the North Carolina Education Alliance. a sound, basic education because their agenda,” she said.to it.” CJ March 2006 CAROLINA 10 Education JOURNAL

School Reform Notes MDTA, CETA, JTPA

Leave us behind, N.C. asks Job-Training Efforts’ Success Difficult to Gauge About 15 states — including By SAM A. HIEB North Carolina — are vying to be Contributing Editor chosen as one of the few that will GREENSBORO be allowed some leeway in how ast month, the U.S. Department of student progress is measured un- Labor announced that the Triad der the No Child Left Behind Act, of North Carolina would be the the federal education law criticized Lrecipient of a $15 million grant to better by some as overly rigid. train local workers for globally competi- Applications were due Feb. tive jobs. 17, three months after Education Needless to say, many treated the Secretary Margaret Spellings an- announcement as a windfall for the nounced that states would be al- area. lowed to seek some flexibility, the “We are fighting the battle to stay Associated Press reports. afloat in the global economy on the home Under the current law, front. Innovation, an achievable game schools are expected to show plan, and wise use of resources will be year-to-year improvement in test critical. A $15 million check from Wash- scores — for example, this year’s ington will be helpful,” wrote the editors third-grade scores are compared of the Greensboro News & Record. to last year’s. But just how helpful is a matter of Under the pilot program, debate. Even the Bush administration, however, schools will be allowed to while spearheading yet another ag- chart how individual students are gressive federal job-training program, the way. The Economic Development of participants. Instead of letting people doing on standardized tests from admits there’s no standard to measure Administration recently announced rely on themselves to improve their one year to the next. the effectiveness of such programs. that the administration’s 2007 budget skills, they want to do it for them.” The idea is the latest move The Triad’s grant is part of Presi- includes a 17 percent increase, to $327 In an article for the Heritage Foun- by the Bush administration to al- dent Bush’s Competitiveness Agenda, million, for programs operating under dation, Muhlhausen took a look at the low more breathing room in the which is part of the federal government’s the initiative. history of job-training programs. No Child Left Behind law. The new focus on regionalism when devel- Kirkman said the partnership’s an- Even the famed Works Progress administration is also giving ru- oping job-training programs. Including nual operating budget was $1.5 million, Administration and Civilian Conser- ral teachers more time to become the Triad, the Labor Department selected so the $15 million grant represents a sig- vation Corps were less than effective, “highly qualified” and allowing 12 multicounty economic regions from nificant increase in financial resources. considering the fact that civilian un- more exemptions for severely dis- around the country to receive the $15 Funding for regional economic employment just before World War abled students. million in funding, spread out over a developers such as Piedmont Triad II was about the same as it was when three-year period. Partnership comes from a variety of the WPA and CCC were created. Still, Economic development agencies, sources, since they are not tied to any support for federal job programs built Get physical in Buncombe many of which previously had been one county government or municipality. after the war. focused on marketing efforts designed Kirkman said the partnership receives There was the 1962 Manpower New rules designed to get to attract business and industry to their funding from all 12 Triad counties, as Development and Training Act, the North Carolina students more regions, will soon find themselves in well as the General Assembly. 1973 Comprehensive Employment and physically active in schools are charge of federal money designed to While Kirkman is only taking ad- Training Act, and the even more recent raising a lot of questions among create job-training programs. vantage of money that’s being offered, Job Training Partnership Act, which educators in Buncombe County “Historically, federal funding has he realizes it might be difficult to justify replaced CETA following charges of trying to balance fitness and aca- not been focused on regions. This is the such a huge infusion of federal funding. corruption and mismanagement. The demics, the Asheville Citizen-Times first significant rollout of a federal phi- While no one would dispute the effect of 1998 Workforce Investment Act took reports. losophy of economic development that factory closings on area workers, unem- over for the JTPA and emphasized more Though students would is going to be focused on regions,” said ployment in the Triad nevertheless fell local control. benefit from the increased activity, Don Kirkman, president of Piedmont to 4.8 percent in December, down from Muhlhausen was unable to find said Doug Jones, health education Triad Partnership, the organization that 5.2 percent in November. any hard evidence that job-training coordinator for Buncombe County will manage the grant money. “When Unemployment rates are also fall- programs have had a positive effect on and Asheville City schools, work- you don’t have governmental structures ing in 11 of the 12 Triad counties. the lives of workers. ing out the logistics of adding 30 or taxing authority organized at the But accountability is a major part of For instance, a national JTPA evalu- minutes of structured physical regional level, it’s often hard to find the competitive initiative. Kirkman said ation tracked the progress of adult men movement to the school day could funding for regional initiatives.” the Labor Department is assembling a and women and male and female out- be tricky. The Labor Department took into technical advisory team, composed of of-school youths who participated in “I think the challenge is in account different factors when award- national leaders in workforce devel- classroom training, on-the-job training, schools trying to find a way to ing the grants. Each region had to dem- opment, to help ensure that regional job search assistance as well as “other address the 30 minutes a day of onstrate a strategic partnership that is economic developers are using federal services.” physical activity without interfer- representative of its entire economy. It funds efficiently. Adult women were the one group ing with academic progress and must also demonstrate that it has a strong “We’ll be under a microscope,” who saw their incomes increase, though how this is going to be done with a team of regional leaders to implement Kirkman said. that impact was “fleeting.” limited number of [physical educa- that strategy. But there are skeptics. One of them Along the same lines, a 2001 study tion] teachers, limited space, and Each region must also be affected is David Muhlhausen, a senior policy on the Job Corps found that the estimated limited time,” Jones said. by an economy in transformation be- analyst in the Center for Data Analysis average increase in weekly income was The new policy issued by the cause of the decline of its economic at The Heritage Foundation. Muhlhau- never more than $25.20 since the pro- state Board of Education requires base. sen said Congress has wasted billions gram was created in 1964. schools to incorporate “physical “I don’t know that there has been of dollars on ineffective job-training Furthermore, the Job Corps also exertion of at least a moderate a region in the country that has been programs. had little impact on hours worked. intensity level and for a duration harder hit by globalization,” Kirkman “This is a failed big-government Participants failed to put in a full year’s sufficient to provide a significant said. “On the basis of jobs and need, I model,” Muhlhausen said in a phone work, and in many cases participants health benefit to students.” CJ think we made a very strong case.” interview. “[The programs] have not actually worked less than nonpar- More federal money could be on shown an ability to raise the wage level ticipants. CJ CAROLINA March 2006 JOURNAL Education 11 What works best IBM Addresses Teacher Shortage and the Digital Divide

By PAIGE HOLLAND HAMP “Many of our experienced employ- help meet this significant need. The pro- IBM RTP campus hosted two Contributing Editor ees have math and science backgrounds gram is garnering strong support from awareness events this year, a Technology RALEIGH and have made it clear that when they key leaders, including U.S. Commerce Expo at Lyon Park Community Center BM is a leader on many fronts. For are ready to leave IBM they aren’t ready Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, who visited in Durham and an Education Summit. North Carolinians one of the most to stop contributing,” said Stanley Litow, IBM’s North Carolina site Feb. 10 with At the Education Summit black students important leadership roles emerging president of the IBM International Foun- North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr. from Ligon and Carroll middle schools Iat IBM is the commitment to transform dation and vice president of IBM Corpo- Burr met with U.S. Secretary of in Raleigh visited the IBM campus. education. IBM has always been a strong rate Community Relations. “They want Education Margaret Spellings on Feb. 9 Students participated in hands-on supporter of education at the local, to continue working in positions that to discuss numerous education issues, activities with IBM employees, such as state, and national levels and contrib- offer them the opportunity to give back including support of the nation’s histori- building Lego robots and aerodynamic utes significant financial and volunteer to society in an extremely meaningful cally black colleges and the need for pro- cars. resources to support schools and other way. Trans- grams such “The goal is to get students think- educational initiatives. ferring their as Transition ing about careers in technology and However, now IBM is harnessing skills from to Teaching. engineering,” IBM spokeswoman Alise its significant technology, math, and IBM to the “A strong McNeill said. “This is a great opportunity science resources as well as its huge classroom is background to show kids the importance of science workforce to take on two key educational a natural for i n m a t h and math — in a really cool way.” crises in the United States — the fast many — es- and science Another of IBM’s most successful growing digital divide and the nation- pecially in is essential projects is Mentorplace, an online e-men- wide teacher shortage. the areas of for Ameri- toring program. The program targets Every year school districts across math and sci- ca’s young middle-school students and matches the country struggle to fill teaching posi- ence.” people to each student with an IBM employee tions, and no areas are harder to recruit In his compete in a for one year. Last year more than 350 quality teachers than those in science and new budget, global econ- employees mentored 450 middle-school math. In September 2005, IBM launched P r e s i d e n t omy,” Burr students. a national initiative, Transition to Teach- Bush includ- A major focus of the program is said. “The ing, to help address this critical need. ed an Ameri- connecting with students in rural areas. Parents and volunteers help Robbins Elementary stu- importance In a nutshell, Transition to Teaching can Compet- A partnership with Communities In dents build robots (Submitted photo) of private encourages experienced IBM employees itiveness Ini- Schools focuses students in Cumberland, and public partnerships emphasizing who are leaving the company to become tiative to double government spending Robeson, Lee, and Moore counties. math and science skills such as IBM’s fully accredited teachers. on basic research, extend tax breaks for At East Lee and Robbins, students During the pilot phase IBM will company spending on research, and pilot program Transition to Teaching who are a part of the ESL program benefit focus on New York and North Carolina. hire thousands of new math and science in North Carolina are critical to ensure from being matched with mentors who To be eligible to participate employees teachers for the nation’s high schools. Ac- that our students are receiving the best are bilingual and often share a cultural must have 10 years of service with IBM, cording to the U.S. Department of Labor, education possible.” history. a related degree, and some past experi- the number of jobs requiring science, Another critical education issue Students at CIS Academy in Robe- ence as a tutor or volunteer in schools. engineering, and technical training will that IBM is working hard to address is son are mostly Native American and are Once an entrant is accepted into the increase by 51 percent through 2008. the ever-growing digital divide. His- matched with mentors there. program IBM provides significant sup- In order to meet that demand the panic and African-American students Communities In Schools President port — up to $15,000 in tuition reim- United States needs 260,000 additional and students from rural areas lag behind Linda Harrill is a big fan of the partner- bursement, and once in the classroom science and math teachers in the class- their peers. IBM uses a series of strate- ship. “For many of these kids it is the the new teachers have access to online room by 2008. Transition to Teaching is gies, including Black Family Technology first time they have ever left their respec- mentoring and other support services a prime example of how the corporate Awareness Week, for reaching these tive counties and their first “corporate” for their students. sector can infuse talent into schools and young people. trip,” Harrill said. CJ March 2006 CAROLINA 12 Higher Education JOURNAL Course of the Month Title IX Supporters Criticize Bush Decision

All for <0.02% of students By SHANNON BLOSSER the basis of sex, be excluded from par- Associate Editor ticipation in, be denied the benefits of, or This month’s column antici- CHAPEL HILL be subjected to discrimination under any pates a host of future winners from controversial clarification re- education program or activity receiving North Carolina State University. It leased last year regarding Title Federal financial assistance.” seems that six individuals of the IX released is still the center During the hearing, several former N.C. State community — out of Aof debate regarding opportunities for female athletes and administrators ar- not only the 30,000 or so students, women in sports and was a central theme gued that without Title IX women would but also faculty, lecturers, adjuncts, at a recent Senate hearing on women not have the opportunities to compete administrators, and staff members in sports. as they do today. Some even argued that across campus — are also “Members Supporters who testified during a recent clarification to Title IX’s three- of the NCSU Transgender/Gender the hearing sought to overturn the prong test only weakens the law. Queer Community.” That means clarification regarding the “fully and Sen. Ted. Stevens, R-Ak., who (and longtime observers of Ameri- effectively” test, as well as to increase chaired the hearings, said he was “ap- can higher-education trends have enforcement of Title IX’s policies. The palled at the reaction that’s taking place already guessed this) that N.C. Senate Committee on Science, Com- now on Title IX.” State needs “Transgender in the merce and Transportation held the “It’s sort of a replay of what went Curriculum.” hearing in February. on before though. It’s just another gen- The quotations are from a The clarification, issued in March eration saying ‘Hey, wait we need more recently completed “Transgender of 2005, allows colleges survey student money for men. You’re taking money Needs Assessment” conducted interest and participation levels to meet from men’s programs.’ It has to be shown for N.C. State at the initiation of the “fully and effectively test.” That test that’s not true.” its Division of Student Affairs. In – one of three used to measure Title IX The committee did not hear testi- keeping with the dispassionate compliance – seeks to determine if a mony from those who believe Title IX has analysis that academe is noted for, school has fully and effectively met the served its purpose, such as representa- N.C. State directed one of its six athletic needs of the student body. Other tives from the College Sports Council “trans/gender queer” individuals, tests determine if a school has a history – a group that attempts to show where Jami Taylor, a Ph.D. student whose and continued practice of providing “It eliminates schools’ Title IX has in essence done the opposite research interests is “trans/gender athletic opportunities for women and obligation to look broad- of what it proposes by forcing schools queer” issues, to conduct the survey. a proportionality requirement, which to close programs and opportunities To make the survey stronger, Taylor states that the ratio among male and ly and proactively at for men. conducted “Supplemental Inter- female athletes should be proportional to In previous interviews with Caro- views” with seven “Non-NCSU” the ratio of male and female students. whether they are satisfy- lina Journal, Eric Pearson, executive di- “members of the trans/gender According to the clarification rector of the College Sports Council, said queer community.” signed by then-Assistant Secretary for ing women’s interests in the clarification gives colleges an option In the “Transgender in the Civil Rights James F. Manning, schools sports, and will thereby instead of cutting men’s programs. Curriculum” section, Taylor notes would be considered in compliance “There is still work to be done sexuality studies programs at Duke with Title IX unless there is an unmet perpetuate the cycle of toward restoring Title IX to its original University and UNC-Chapel Hill. interest sufficient to sustain a varsity intent, fairness for all student athletes,” What did her baker’s dozen “trans/ team, a sufficient ability to sustain an discrimination.” he said in April 2005. gender queer” individuals think intercollegiate team, and there is a rea- Stevens said the committee may about that? sonable expectation competition for a Donna de Varona sponsor more hearings on Title IX. Those “None of the respondents team within the school’s region. Gold Medal Winner hearings, he said, would include repre- in this study favored the creation Donna de Varona, a gold medal 1964 Olympics sentatives from the Bush Administra- of a special course for transgender winner in swimming at the 1964 tion, the Department of Education, the concerns,” Taylor reported. “None Olympics and founder of the Women’s U.S. Olympic Committee and others. The mentioned a need for a queer stud- Sports Foundation, argued to committee Olympic Committee was brought into ies curriculum or sexuality studies members that the clarification creates a the picture because of the International minor. The transgender students loophole and allows schools to avoid than men and that providing women Olympic Committee’s decision to drop interviewed at nearby universities their responsibilities. with opportunities cheats men out of baseball and softball as Olympic sports concurred.” “The bottom line is that the policy resources,” de Varona said. in 2012 because of lack of participation Taylor’s summation? “These allows schools to gauge female students’ Besides de Varona, the hearing in- among the countries. No date for those results could be biased. It is quite interest in athletics by doing nothing cluding many former and current female hearings has been set, according to the possible that individuals interested more than conducting an e-mail survey athletes including U.S. Softball stars Dot committee’s Web site. in sexuality studies would enroll and to claim – in these days of excessive Richardson and Jennie Finch, as well as Stevens also said advocates for where the programs are currently e-mail spam – that a failure to respond Domique Dawes, a member of the 1996 more opportunities for women must offered. They are not likely to be to the survey shows a lack of interest U.S. Olympic women’s gymnastics team. realize that it may be impossible for a found at NCSU.” Too bad! in playing sports,” de Varona said. “It Dawes, who is the current president of true 50-50 balance in funding. Sports Fortunately for Taylor, N.C. eliminates schools’ obligation to look the Women’s Sports Foundation, said such as football have larger budgetary State has a pliable vice provost for broadly and proactively at whether that Title IX should not be weaken. needs than women’s soccer, because of diversity and African-American they are satisfying women’s interests in “Efforts to weaken Title IX should the size of the team, travel and other affairs, Dr. Jose Picart. sports, and will thereby perpetuate the not be supported by Congress,” Dawes costs. “Dr. Picart was asked about cycle of discrimination to which women said. “Our sons and daughters must have “It may vary by university,” Ste- the inclusion of transgender issues have been subjected.” the same opportunities and encourage- vens said. “You may not agree with that, in current courses,” Taylor writes in She also added that there is “wide- ment to participate in sports.” but I think the division ought to be on academic passive voice. “He was in spread non-compliance with Title IX in Oregon women’s soccer coach Tara the basis of the people who are going to favor of this.” Natch! CJ schools across the country.” The Office Erickson argued that the legislation has participate in sports and make sure that of Civil Rights did not return a request helped to level the playing field. there is equality in terms of that. If there to verify her statement. “This important civil rights law are more women than there are men “History has painted a picture of has established a level of fairness and who are going to be involved in sports John Locke Foundation research tremendous growth and acceptance of equality in athletics,” she said. then they ought to get more money, and editor Jon Sanders tracks down the the female athlete, but she still battles Title IX was passed in 1972 as part if there are less they should recognize monthly wacky course offering. the perception that girls and women of the Education Amendments. It says that they should have less because there are inherently less interested in sports “No person in the United States shall, on are more men involved.” CJ CAROLINA March 2006 JOURNAL Higher Education 13 BOG Examines Budget Priorities Commentary in Advance of Legislative Session Setting College Priorities et’s be honest: East Carolina for the rigors of academia and ulti- By SHANNON BLOSSER peer institutions. Moving salaries closer University has a reputation as mately take weak classes and focus Associate Editor to that from other institutions is a goal a party school. The stories are the majority of their attention on CHAPEL HILL of the UNC Office of the President, ac- Lall too common about the drinking drinking or other ventures. ith three months before the cording to the document. that occurs in Greenville. Recently, Higher education is not for 2006 General Assembly short UNC officials had already dis- ECU administrators have attempted everyone. Institutions of higher session begins, the UNC Board cussed some of the projects, including to take a stand and curb some of the learning should be places for a Wof Governors is trying to decide which the UNC Research Campus at the for- under-age drinking on campus. select few to come and learn and to projects the system will submit to leg- mer Pillowtex plant in Kannapolis. The As admirable as the move is advance the skills that they already islators for approval. center is a venture of Dole Foods and to curb the drinking, you have to have. It is not a job training center Recently, in a work session before Castle & Cooke, Inc., as well as the state shake your head at a resolution to give people a degree and skills to the monthly board meeting, members of North Carolina and the University of passed last year by the school’s get a job in the global economy. received updates on several projects North Carolina. UNC is proposing to Faculty Senate dealing Yet, academics and their budgets. No decisions were seek funding to support programs by with classroom discus- believe that higher made on the budget appropriations. UNC-Chapel Hill, North Carolina State sions of alcohol. The education should That is expected to come in April at a University, UNC-Charlotte, and North resolution, dated Sept. train the workers of board meeting in Greensboro before Carolina A&T in this project. 13, asked faculty mem- tomorrow. Many of inauguration ceremonies for UNC’s new UNC is also seeking a change to bers to limit discussions the fields that are now president, Erskine Bowles. funding that was included in its budget on drinking. in the realm of higher In all, seven funding proposals request last year for a proposed Alfred According to the education could be were discussed during the workshop. E. Mann Institute for Biomedical Engi- resolution and back- better left to on-the-job Some seek a change in budget appro- neering. The center would be a project ground information, training by employers. priations that were approved during the of NCSU and UNC-Chapel Hill. Mann faculty members at One could argue that budget negotiations last year. is proposing to create an institute similar ECU would often joke Shannon a student who wants Among those is funding for enroll- to one he funded at the University of with students about Blosser to manage a golf ment and financial aid. According to a Southern California to commercialize drinking on campus course would learn document used during the workshop, intellectual property. Mann is propos- and would even cancel classes or more about golf course manage- UNC is expecting an additional 7,000 ing a $100 million endowment for the exams when they knew students ment by actually working at a golf to 8,000 students system-wide. It is es- program with the two schools, with an would not be in attendance. Stu- course than sitting in a classroom. timated that UNC will seek $75 million additional $78.3 million coming from dents, on the other hand, believe Students could easily gain practical to $85 million in enrollment growth the state. that the day after Halloween is an real-world experience on the job, funding, however final numbers are In 2005, the system’s budget official holiday at ECU to overcome while saving space in an institution expected to be presented at the April request sought $50 million for the the previous night’s drinking. This of higher education for someone meeting. Also, need-based financial aid project. is obviously not the case. who wants a more traditional lib- is estimated at $21.1 million. Other projects considered by UNC The resolution says, “students eral arts education. UNC is also asking for an increase are funding for a proposed Hickory have complained about instruc- Higher education should in salaries for faculty members and to Center for Engineering Technology and tors” and claims that “jokes about not continue the open-door pol- move salaries to the 80th percentile of HUB Contractor Business Academies. CJ student drinking icy where its and canceling admissions classes or exams Students are more con- policies are Higher Tuition Slated for Some Schools promote drink- not selective. ing and insult cerned about the student Administra- By BRIAN SOPP creased by $170.05 for undergraduates the non-drink- tors should be Editorial Intern and by $166.05 for graduate students. ers.” life on campus than they more selective RALEIGH Although some students were While in the students everal UNC institutions proposed displeased with the decision, trustees the resolution are the academic profile that they admit increases to tuition and fees for also passed a nonbinding resolution aims to limit of an institution. instead of ad- the 2006-2007 school year. The introduced by Student Body President what professors mitting every- Sincreases continue a trend that has been Seth Dearmin that changes the trustee’s can say in the one to promote ongoing at UNC system schools for tuition philosophy to add predictability classroom about some ill-guided several years. and consider it to be “over the short and drinking, it really speaks to another program of access and opportunity During the meeting of the UNC long term a core element.” issue regarding students today: to all. When you become selective, Board of Governors in November, the Several schools have cited the need Today’s students are more inter- you get the students who want to BOG budget and finance committee for increased faculty salaries, teaching ested in a getting a piece of paper be there and push out the students recommended limits on tuition and fee assistant stipends, and financial and after four years than they are about who really have no desire to be in increases at universities around the state need-based aid as reasons for increased learning anything while in college. higher education. ranging from $271 to $451. tuition. However, these are not the only Students are more concerned about For those students who enter NC State’s Board of Trustees voted expenditures the new proposals will the student life on campus than college, they must be responsible Nov. 18 to raise tuition by $325 for all cover. they are the academic profile of an and understand there is a delicate students and to increase student fees In their meeting in December, institution. balance between classroom time by $90.60. Trustees at UNC-Asheville trustees at UNC-Charlotte approved a That speaks to the problems and free time. The top priority for approved a recommendation to increase proposal to increase tuition and fees by with the current philosopy in students should be to go to class in-state tuition by $275 and out-of-state $346. Part of the increase includes a $50 academia, which believes that an and learn. Anything else on a col- tuition by $600. debt service fee to help pay off the new open door and opportunity for all lege campus is secondary, and that At a meeting Jan. 25, UNC-Chapel student union. is essential to the future of higher includes cheering on the school’s Hill Board of Trustees members unani- Trustees at Appalachian State education. This is wrong. That be- athletic teams and going out for a mously approved a proposal that would University have proposed a tuition lief allows the marginally qualified few beers after class. CJ raise undergraduate tuition for residents increase of $545 and a total tuition and and the unqualified to enter. When and nonresidents by $250 and $1,100, fee increase of $1,053 for on-campus they get there, these students are Shannon Blosser is a staff writer respectively. students and $740 for off-campus stu- not interested in learning anything with the John William Pope Center for Graduate tuition would be raised dents even though the BOG cap allows of substance. They are unprepared Higher Education Policy. by $500 and student fees would be in- an increase of only $322. CJ March 2006 CAROLINA 14 Higher Education JOURNAL Bats in the Belltower Muhammad Cartoons Cause Flaps Seahawk Gets it All Wrong at UNC-CH and University of Illinois

n January, the Pope Center for protected by the First Amend- By SHANNON BLOSSER dynamic she has taken, and its ramifica- Higher Education Policy pub- ment) against a public university (a Associate Editor tions for the freedom of student organi- lished the Foundation for Indi- governmental organization bound CHAPEL HILL zations, is troubling.” Ividual Rights in Education’s report by the First Amendment) whose or the second time this school year, Days after the cartoons were pub- on “The State of the First Amend- chancellor defended its actions on The Daily Tar Heel, UNC-Chapel lished, members of the Muslim Student ment in the UNC System.” In late the wrongheaded notion that there Hill’s student newspaper, is in the Association held an information session January, a UNC campus’s student is a “tension” between the First Fmiddle of a firestorm over content in on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus to ex- newspaper wrote about it, toadying Amendment and the Fourteenth, its publication. This time the criticism plain why the cartoons were offensive for the university system in defense which UNC-Chapel Hill needed to comes from UNC-Chapel Hill admin- and to also detail certain aspects of the of UNC’s trespasses against the “balance” (by completely subjugat- istrators. Islamic faith and tradition. First Amendment. ing First Amendment rights). On Feb. 9, the student newspaper This is the second time this school The staff editorial, published The Pope Center “also helped published a controversial cartoon of Mu- year the Muslim Student Association Jan. 26 in the UNC- a student go after UNC- hammad, the founder of Islam, standing has criticized the DTH for something Wilmington Seahawk, CH when in an e-mail, a between what look like two windows in published in the paper. The other time offered a highly instruc- professor criticized the a mosque. The view from one window came when former columnist Jillian tive example of how not comments the student shows a Danish flag, and Muhammad Bandes wrote a column on terrorism call someone else’s First made in her class,” the is quoted as saying “They may get and Arabs. In the column, Bandes wrote Amendment credentials Seahawk editors wrote. me from my bad side.” The view from that she wanted all Arabs to be stripped into question. Editors “Where was the Pope the other window naked and given a gave the piece the em- Foundation when shows a scene fol- cavity-search at an blematic headline, “The the professor’s First lowing a terrorist airport. Pope Foundation and Amendment rights were incident, and Mu- “Her opinion is no more The Muslim free speech: The new Pot Jon being violated?” Sanders hammad says “… Student Associa- and Kettle.” The Pope Center but they show me crucial than that of the tion criticized the In just the headline was with the student, from my worst.” column, saying it alone, the editors displayed confu- whose rights were the ones under Philip McFee, a most sophomoric blog- was offensive to sion over or ignorance of essential attack by the government authority UNC-Chapel Hill ger or engraged pundit.” Muslim students. facts (Pope Center vs. Pope Foun- figure. The editors should remem- student, drew the UNC-Cha- dation), and they also unwittingly ber the rather significant fact that cartoon. Philip McFee pel Hill is not the strengthened the case they were the U.S. Dept. of Education’s Office The cartoon only school to trying to attack. Use of the pot-and- of Civil Rights ruled that the teach- Daily Tar Heel cartoonist was immediately Reacting to criticism from face controversy kettle analogy has always been to er, Elyse Crystall, had harassed and criticized by the surrounding the suggest the one (the pot) is essen- discriminated her student on the UNC-Chapel Hill UNC Vice Chancellor publication of tially the same as the other (the basis of race and sexual orientation. Muslim Student for Student Affairs “offensive” car- kettle). It’s obvious that the Seahawk “And as for the Christian fra- Association and Margaret Jablonski toons by student staff wished to say something ternity, whatever happened to the also by UNC Vice newspapers. At negative about the Pope Center, but separation of church and state?” the Chancellor for Stu- the University of instead they actually hit upon the editors ask, thinking they’re quot- dent Affairs Margaret Jablonski. Illinois, two editors, Acton Gorton truth: The Pope Center’s concern ing the First Amendment. “If an In a letter to the editor published by and Chuck Prochaska, were suspended for free speech was essentially the organization refuses to sign an anti- the student-run newspaper, the Muslim without pay for publishing cartoons same as the First Amendment’s. discrimination clause and openly Student Association said The Daily Tar offensive to Muslims in the The Daily “So the Pope Foundation is says they will not permit students Heel intended to offend when it ran the Illini. Gordon and Prochaska published criticizing free speech,” the editorial of any other religion entrance into cartoon. some of the original artwork from Dan- began, failing to make two key dis- their organization, should they be “The intention of bigotry was ish publications that started the original tinctions: (1) the Pope Foundation is permitted funding and acknowl- clear,” the Muslim Student Association controversy in the Middle East. the philanthropy that supports the edgement by an institution of the wrote in the letter. “One must question “This has gotten crazy,” Gorton Pope Center as well as universities state?” the DTH’s ethics in advancing a widely told The New York Times. “We did this across the state and many other fine The fact a federal judge issued protested issue to cause a riot of their to raise a healthy dialogue about an causes, and (2) the Pope Center is a preliminary injunction against own.” important issue that is in the news and criticizing the lack of free speech at UNC-CH’s attempt to prevent The Winston-Salem Journal pub- so that people would learn more about UNC. the fraternity from choosing its lished comments from Jablonski in Islam. Now, I’m basically fired.” The editors then try to build members based on religious belief which she questioned the paper’s edito- The controversy at UNC and the the quite ridiculous case that the should suggest to the student paper rial decision. She said the cartoon was University of Illinois comes while a Pope/FIRE study is worthless that their interpretation is likely “hurtful” and “offensive to members of lawsuit is working its way through the because of implied hypocrisy on wrong. the campus community.” federal court system that should deter- the part of the Pope Center. They If the Seahawk wishes to opine “Many of our national media mine how much authority university ad- bungle it spectacularly. Not only do in favor of racial and sexual ha- outlets chose not to publish the original ministrators have in censoring student the Seahawk editors wind up high- rassment and discrimination by pictures or cartoons and we believe media. The case is based on a situation lighting the Pope Center’s commit- those vested with authority by the our student papers should have used at Governors State University and the ment to free speech, but also they government, by all means may they the same editorial judgment,” she was student newspaper, The Innovator. In expose their own ignorance of that proceed (in the proud tradition of quoted as saying. that case, the school’s dean of student vital liberty. Pravda and Granma). But would it McFee, in his on-line blog, dis- affairs told the paper’s publisher that the The Pope Center supported be asking too much for them not to agreed with Jablonski’s assertion. administration would review the paper “a Christian fraternity [that sued] insult their readers’ intelligence by “Her commentary was unneces- before it was published. UNC-Chapel Hill for refusing to pretending they’re doing that in the sary and uninformed, given the relation After courts upheld The Innovator’s recognize an organization that dis- name of free speech? CJ of the DTH to the [u]niversity,” McFee freedom of press rights, the Seventh criminates based on religion,” the wrote. “Her opinion is no more crucial Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the editors write. That is, the Pope Cen- than that of the most sophomoric blog- school had the right to edit the news- ter supported the First Amendment Jon Sanders is research editor for ger or enraged pundit. She is given the paper, based upon a 1988 Supreme rights of the students (individuals the John Locke Foundation. right to say anything, as we all are, under Court ruling that said high school of- freedom of speech, but the mother-hen ficials could review newspapers. CJ CAROLINA March 2006 JOURNAL Higher Education 15 Why Not ‘Deregulate’ American Public Higher Education? By GEORGE C. LEEF “deregulation” means efforts great amounts of money are spent on the RALEIGH has been enor- to keep weak equivalent of educational junk food. upporters of the statist-quo usu- mously wasteful, students from Why? ally recoil in anguish from the writing, “[T]he dropping out, As Milton Friedman says, “No one idea of deregulation. They can money in New on the same as- spends other people’s money as carefully Sbe counted on to try discrediting it at Zealand is now sumption. The as he spends his own.” When it comes to almost every turn. A recent article in The spread out over result is primar- education, students are largely spending Chronicle of Higher Education does so so many insti- ily to increase taxpayer money when students make and prompts this essay. tutions and so the number of their choices. Davies correctly observed In “The Lessons of Deregulation,” many programs college gradu- that students are not wise decision-mak- Gordon Davies, director of the National of questionable ates with poor ers: “Too many naïve young people will Collaborative for Postsecondary Educa- value that sup- skills who will opt for the offer of a free cellphone or tion Policy, argues that the United States port for impor- end up taking for a ‘fun’ program like surfing rather should not copy the “deregulation” of tant but high-cost programs — such as “high school” jobs. Putting more money than select the education that they truly higher education that has occurred in those in medicine, computer science, and into “research” sounds good, but a lot of need.” That’s undoubtedly true, and New Zealand, calling it “a market ex- engineering — is unrealistically low.” the research that goes on in our universi- is all the more reason not to put those periment gone bad.” That phrase caught Davies is worried that similar ideas ties is of negligible value; “partnerships” people in position to squander other my attention; in my view, true market might spread to the United States. He with schools (government schools, that people’s money. experiments that go bad are rarer than notes that in several states, policy mak- is) won’t do anything to overcome the The recent National Assessment of alligators in the Yukon. So what was ers are asking for greater autonomy for inherent flaws in government-run edu- Adult Literacy shows that, despite the going on? public universities. “Colorado, South cation; and it is mission creep to call prodigious sums lavished on education Davies notes that, beginning in Carolina, Virginia, Washington, West upon universities to become involved in the United States, we have a startling 1989, New Zealand followed a policy Virginia, and others have been lured in economic development, which will low level of literacy in this country, even of allowing a proliferation of post-sec- by the call of the open market,” he said. happen spontaneously without any at- among people who have post-graduate ondary educational institutions, some Better not do it, he cautioned, at least tempted boosting. degrees. If parents, students, and other of which grant degrees, some not, to not without making sure that the state More to the point, though, even interested parties were putting up their tap into state funding. The idea was to keeps enough control to fulfill “a public if some or all of those policy notions own money, they would take far more encourage greater consumer choice in agenda that meets the needs of their worked, they would not solve the prob- care than they do now to make sure that it education. The result was an explosion residents.” Davies proceeds to praise lem of higher-education dollars being wasn’t being wasted on educational cot- of subdegree programs. In just the space Virginia because it ties “deregulation” drained away into academically feeble ton candy. Because education is mostly of a few years, government grants to the of its institutions to commitments to programs and courses. That started paid for by government, however, many subdegree programs went from being “provide greater access regardless of stu- happening long before anyone was students drag out their years of formal half of what the government was pro- dent income, to improve retention and talking about “deregulation.” American schooling, often accomplishing less in viding to degree-granting institutions completion rates, to increase research colleges and universities have majors 16 years than people a century ago did to equal amounts. support, to create partnerships with such as golf course management and in eight. The trouble is that many if not all schools, and to be actively involved in casino management — perfectly useful If we are serious about the waste of the subdegree (or certificate) programs economic development.” fields, but where on-the-job training has of education dollars, we ought to fo- are very flimsy academically. Davies pro- When politicians write legislation always been adequate. They also have cus our attention on the real problem vides a number of excellent examples, that aims at pleasant-sounding but vague lots of “identity” programs — women’s — government funding. CJ including funding for “Maori singalong objectives, they hardly ever accomplish studies, African-American studies, courses,” and programs in “golf stud- anything. “Greater access” means trying “Latina/o studies,” and so on — that ies.” One polytechnic institute scammed to get a few more marginal students into don’t transmit a body of knowledge to more than $9 million for a course that college rather than into the job market students, but attempt to engender cer- George Leef is executive director of the consisted of nothing more than sending on the assumption that more formal tain attitudes of resentment. And they Pope Center for Higher Education Policy. students a CD for them to study at home. education is always better — but it isn’t. have numerous vapid courses on pop Visit PopeCenter.org for more information Davies concludes that this policy of “Improving retention and completion” culture topics. Just as in New Zealand, about its programs.

Since 1991, Carolina Journal has provided thousands of readers each month with in-depth reporting, informed analysis, and incisive commentary about the most pressing state and local issues in North Carolina. Now Carolina Journal has taken its trademark blend of news, analysis, and commentary to the airwaves with Carolina Journal Radio. A weekly, one-hour newsmagazine, Carolina Journal Radio is hosted by John Hood and Donna Martinez and features a diverse mix of guests and topics. The pro- gram is currently broadcast on 18 commercial stations – from the mountains to the coast. The Carolina Journal Radio Network includes these fine affiliates: Albemarle/Concord WSPC AM 1010 Saturdays 11:00 AM Burlington WBAG AM 1150 Saturdays 9:00 AM Chapel Hill WCHL AM 1360 Saturdays 5:00 PM Elizabeth City WGAI AM 560 Saturdays 6:00 AM Fayetteville WFNC AM 640 Saturdays 1:00 PM Gastonia/Charlotte WZRH AM 960 Saturdays 1:00 PM Goldsboro WGBR AM 1150 Saturdays 12:00 PM Greensboro/Burlington WDLX AM 930 Saturdays 10:00 AM Greenville/Washington WSML AM 1200 Saturdays 12:00 PM Hendersonville WHKP AM 1450 Sundays 5:00 PM Jacksonville WJNC AM 1240 Sundays 7:00 PM Lumberton WFNC FM 102.3 Saturdays 1:00 PM Newport/New Bern WTKF FM 107.3 Sundays 7:00 PM Salisbury WSTP AM 1490 Saturdays 11:00 AM Siler City WNCA AM 1570 Sundays 6:00 AM Southern Pines WEEB AM 990 Wednesdays 8:00 AM Whiteville WTXY AM 1540 Tuesdays 10:00 AM Wilmington WAAV AM 980 Saturdays 1:00 PM Winston-Salem/Triad WSJS AM 600 Saturdays 12:00 PM For more information, visit www.CarolinaJournal.com/CJRadio March 2006 CAROLINA 16 Local Government JOURNAL Town and County Funeral Home in Eminent-Domain Fight in Durham

Bald Head vehicle fees By DONNA MARTINEZ Associate Editor The N.C. Court of Appeals DURHAM has upheld Bald Head Island’s fee s Durham County prepares to structure on vehicles with internal- force a century-old, African combustion engines. The ruling American-owned funeral home came after several companies that Ato vacate a downtown city block and do business on the resort island con- make way for a new courthouse, a county tended that the high fees amounted commissioner who voted against the to taxes. taking says he thinks counties might Bald Head Island’s roads are have too much eminent-domain power designed to accommodate golf over citizens. carts, not cars. The village charges Commissioner Michael Page said a fee on the use of vehicles powered he understands that the location of by internal-combustion engines. Scarborough and Hargett Funeral Home, In 2002, Bald Head Island greatly Inc. is the ideal site for the courthouse raised the fees. While previously because it is adjacent to the existing the top annual permit fee had been detention center and increases safety $200, after the increase it went to for criminal justice workers and citizens $2,000. Daily fees on construction in the area. County plans call for a new vehicles and delivery vans were 225,000-square-foot courthouse to be set at $200. built on the business’s site and connected “As the fees are based on a to the jail by underground tunnel. Still, vehicle’s weight and width, and on Page said, “This was poor planning on the duration of the permit, we con- somebody’s behalf and I don’t think clude that they are squarely within Mr. Scarborough should have to suffer Scarborough & Hargett Funeral Home in Durham, shown here with the Durham County the legislative grant of power to as a result of poor planning.” A U-Haul Jail building in the background, is involved in a contentious eminent domain case. The assess fees based on ‘criteria that business next to the funeral home is also county wants to build a new courthouse on the site. (Submitted photo) bear upon the Village’s costs,’” targeted for government removal. eyeing the site with his father more for less than what he thinks it’s worth. Judge Robin Hudson wrote for Page, who is also executive director than 30 years ago. He takes offense at The law requires the county to provide the court. of United Christian Campus Ministry at those who contend he knew he would just compensation, but Scarborough “Furthermore, in the amend- North Carolina Central University and eventually be required to leave the prime disputes the county’s appraisal and says ed Charter, the General Assembly the pastor at Antioch Baptist Church in downtown Durham location. “I said it doesn’t come close to what his “prime, explicitly stated that the fees must Durham, said he asked county officials that’s a blatant lie, because if my father prime property” is worth. “I told them be used to finance ‘the establish- about other sites and was told that an had known when he drove up on this they’re sick, they’re crazy,” said Scar- ment and maintenance’ of the alternative on Main Street had been con- property and sat here over two hours borough. “I want fair, fair market value Village’s roads. Accordingly, we sidered but that it didn’t measure up. and I was trying to persuade him, if my to make a person whole. If you move conclude that the Village has not Scarborough and Hargett has oc- father had known that…he would have them out, make sure they have enough exceeded its statutory authority.” cupied two acres at 306 S. Roxboro St. kept driving off the property.” to recoup, to go back into business if since 1974. It is a five-generation, fam- It’s this history that contributed to they want to,” he said. “I keep hearing ily-owned and operated enterprise. J.C. Page’s vote against the county taking the the word ‘giving.’ I don’t want anybody “Skeepie” Scarborough, III, president/ Scarborough property through eminent to give me anything. Pay me.” CEO and great-grandson of the founder, No to dentistry/day spa domain. The family’s well-known com- Page is sympathetic but says pay- is fighting the county’s action. munity contributions also swayed Page. ing Scarborough more than fair market Scarborough’s grandfather became The latest trend is to combine Scarborough has served on the board of value is an abuse of taxpayer dollars. He a funeral director in 1905 after watching dentistry and day spas, a dentist Mechanics and Farmers Bank in Durham predicts the case will end up in court, a white-owned funeral home refuse to recent told High Point City Coun- since 1968. with the public weighing in against the put his family’s deceased friend in the cil. The council was apparently Sitting in his conference room county, which will be viewed as “picking customary horse-drawn hearse. African not impressed by the combination surrounded by family portraits and me- on” Scarborough and his family. Cheek Americans were relegated to the funeral of services, for it turned down a mentos, he proudly points out that his is adamant the county has been fair in home’s basement and a horse-drawn request to modify city zoning to grandfather was the first black licensed its negotiations based on the appraisal wagon. “So my grandfather said, ‘well facilitate the combination, the News funeral director and embalmer in North method accepted in North Carolina law. then, I’ll open up my own business to & Record of Greensboro reports. Carolina, and that the business is the He declined to reveal the county’s offer give my people dignity in death,’” Scar- “Combining traditional med- oldest black funeral home in the state. but emphasized that fair market value borough said. “So our motto is a digni- ical treatments with more non- Last year the family conducted funerals is the legal definition of just compensa- fied service in a sympathetic way.” traditional means of therapy is an for nearly 300 people. tion. The county’s plan is galling to emerging trend,” dentist Dr. Joel But the Scarborough family’s busi- Regardless of the outcome, the Scarborough for historical and financial Gentry told the council. “Many ness and personal history wasn’t, and Scarborough case has other business reasons. dentists are referring some of their shouldn’t, be a factor in the county’s owners worried. Scarborough says This isn’t the first time his business patients to spa treatments or giving decision, according to Commissioner executives at two neighboring car has made way for public development. them complimentary spa services Lewis Cheek, who voted for the emi- dealerships have contacted him to dis- After making several moves in its early in some means.” nent-domain action and has practiced cuss his predicament and their future. history, the Scarborough business was Gentry has a practice on Lex- condemnation law for 25 years. In fact, “They feel that within another 10 to 20 uprooted by the Redevelopment Com- ington Avenue in an area zoned as a Cheek said, if he or his family had owned years, somebody will be at them, too,” mission of the City of Durham in 1968 limited office business district. Vita the desired property, he still would have he said. Both Page and Cheek say they and put in a temporary location to Bella wanted to operate a day spa in voted against his personal interest and are unaware of any county plans to take make way for the Durham Freeway. It Gentry’s building, but it was unable for what he viewed was best for all. “It’s other property in the area. took several years for Scarborough to to get a business license because the a tough decision, but tough decisions Although his head is enmeshed secure financing and select the location zoning classification doesn’t allow come with the territory and if you’re not in financial documents and legalities the funeral home occupies today. “We massage-type businesses. willing to make difficult decisions, then related to the property fight, Scarbor- were just about pushed here, sat here “This is not a slope we want you don’t belong in government,” Cheek ough’s heart is clearly committed to his by government, and this is the irony,” to start in on,” said Councilman said of his Scarborough vote. family’s legacy. “This is an institution, he said. Bill Bencini. CJ Scarborough said he’s willing to go and based on what it was built for, I Scarborough vividly remembers to jail to prevent the taking of his business don’t see stopping.” CJ CAROLINA March 2006 JOURNAL Local Government 17

Closing the YAP Commentary Ex-Youth Leader Faces Charges Gauging Government Success By KAREN WELSH Fast Facts From the Audit Contributing Editor ne of the more remarkable paying taxes, but in the report RALEIGH The following schedule represents a aspects of local govern- that tax burden is divided by the everal nonprofit, county, and state quantification of the items examined during ment is often the inability residents only. This makes counties agencies are waiting to recoup a the state auditor’s special review: Oof the public or private sector to ad- such as Dare look like expensive total of $125,000 in funds missing 1. Questionable checks and with- equately understand how to gauge places to be relative to local govern- Sfrom the now-defunct Youth Assistance the success or effectiveness of it. ment. drawals from Jan. 1, 2001 to May 31, 2004 Program of Cleveland County. — $37,177.78 Nothing illustrates this better than But this report also illustrates A review by the N.C. State Audi- 2. Questionable purchases using debit the annual By The Numbers report the difficulty faced by counties such tor’s Office in 2004, and a followup year- and credit cards from July 1, 2003 to May 31, issued by the Center for Local Inno- as Stokes, Bertie, Columbus and end report in December 2005 blames 2004 — $10,824.69 vation. This report summarizes the other rural counties that don’t have 3. The YAP inflated results to the former Executive Director Pam Greene various expenditures rapidly expanding tax for the shortfall. Governor’s One-On-On Volunteer Program — $39,000 by city and county bases or increasing popu- “A finding equals a problem,” said 4. Questionable mileage reports pro- and divides that into lations. In fact, many Dennis Patterson, spokesman for the Of- posed by the executive director’s daughter existing populations. rural counties have more fice of the State Auditor. “Anytime you — $990.40 The first criti- than half of their prop- have a finding, it’s never a good situa- 5. Yearly salary of the executive cism is always that erty under deferment tion, and, (YAP of Cleveland County) director’s daughter — $30,512 the report isn’t programs that generate had many findings.” 6. Administrative assistant position In January, a Cleveland County funding paid to employees — $6,557.03 comparing “apples to little, if any, taxes. They 7. Cooperative Co-Parenting Program grand jury charged Greene with 10 apples.” The second also get hit with higher fees collected, but not deposited — $730.00 comment usually numbers of folks receiv- counts of embezzlement. Assistant 8. District Attorney Katherine Sawyer TOTAL: $125,792.40 comes from folks who ing assistance. is handling the prosecution, but she want to justify their In 2002, folks paid Source: Office of the North Carolina State Auditor refused to comment because the case is expenses as a quality- 4.14 percent of their in- still pending. of-life issue such as comes to local taxes and However, the Shelby Star newspa- said. “We are still waiting for the offi- parks and recreation fees, in 2003 that rose per reported that Greene said she did cial announcement. Hopefully, at some or a senior services center. That ser- to 4.35 percent, and in 2004 it rose not commit any crimes. “I will say I’m point there will be an opportunity for vice increases cost, but the tradeoff once again to 4.65 percent. It could innocent,” Greene told the newspaper. organizations to recover funds.” is worth it, at least in their minds. easily top 5 percent once the num- “But on the advice of my attorney, I can- Renee Hoffman, director of Public The real question should be, bers are in for 2005. That means not comment further at this time.” Affairs for the Governor’s Crime Com- “Is what we’re doing worth it?” that the cost of local government is The report, originally released mission, said her organization sent a This particular question can be rising relative to folks’ incomes. by State Auditor Ralph Campbell Jr. in letter of intent in March 2005 stating answered by only you and your North Carolina is a remark- November 2004, said many allegations commission members want repayment neighbors. You see, there is a long able state; having traveled from and complaints of mismanaged funds for funds sent to YAP. list of services that the general coast to mountains many times, one for the youth program, situated at the Cleveland County Manager David statutes consider to be “optional.” becomes enamored of the spirit of time in Shelby, were received on the State Dear said the local government might They are: water and sewer, solid- its people. Having lived in several Auditor’s Hotline. be responsible to pay restitution for waste collection, fire protection, states, there is nothing like being Not only was a significant amount this “very unfortunate incident,” but ambulance and rescue services, here. The culture and pride that of money missing from YAP through county officials are waiting for the mat- hospital, airport, planning, com- thrives within all of the small and undocumented cashed checks, falsified ter to work its way through the court munity development, recreation, large towns in this state still calls mileage reports, and duplicate expense system. library, historic preservation, com- back to the days of fresh lemonade receipts to the Governor’s Crime Com- The state auditor’s document also munity appearance, and human stands and dealing with local prob- mission for reimbursement; other dis- found some of the funding organizations relations. lems with local folks and churches. crepancies were found as well. at fault. The report found that officials of Many could argue the private Now is a wonderful time for The investigation of the program’s the Department of Juvenile Justice and sector can provide such services. the leadership of the state to realize records from Jan. 1, 2001 to June 4, 2004 Delinquency Prevention and the Gov- But few would argue that such that local leadership might well do also found that Greene reported inflated ernor’s One-on-One Volunteer Program services should be entirely removed us all some good. Help to restore results to the Governor’s One-on-One failed to monitor the youth program from the public sector. Quality-of- local control and simplify our taxa- Volunteer Program and used the funding because, if they had, the shortfalls might for positions that did not exist. have been detected at an earlier date, or life issues are difficult to measure tion policies. Greene also contracted with fam- prevented from ever happening. with respect to effectiveness and In doing so, we might well ily members who did not meet the “The last time YAP underwent efficiency. How do you measure the find a way to more adequately educational requirements as described a monitoring review was in 1999 and success of historic preservation or compare the successes in local gov- in a grant given by the Department the report has since been archived or human relations? You can try, but ernment all across this great state. of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency destroyed,” the report said. “The Act- ultimately, you have to feel that it’s For now, it seems, there are plenty Prevention-Juvenile Crime Prevention ing State Director said it was an error worth it. of excuses for why government Council. on their behalf that YAP had not been The By The Numbers report costs so much, “You see, our town The audit also showed that Greene monitored since 1999.” is overly simplistic in that way. It is just different.” CJ paid her daughter, Tristan Reynolds, for “There needs to be checks and bal- also falls short of finding a way parenting classes she did not facilitate ances,” Dear said. “We’ve already started in which to compare resort and through funds given by the Cleveland doing trainings for board of directors, beach areas to largely rural areas County Department of Social Services. to improve each board’s oversight for whose populations and tax bases Greene also paid her family mem- non-profits.” are far more stable. Beaches make Chad Adams is vice chairman bers’ personal expenses with United Way In the end, Hassell said, the it difficult to assess property-tax of the Lee County Board of Commis- Basic Needs Grant Funds. young people are the real losers in the burdens, as they tend to have few sioners, John Locke Foundation vice United Way of Cleveland County scandal. actual residents and many owners president for development, and director Director Tom Hassell said he hopes to “(YAP) was doing good things,” that live out of town. of the Center for Local Innovation. get back some of thousands of dollars he said. “It’s fair to say that not hav- Thus all the properties are Visit www.LocalInnovation.org. United Way gave to YAP. “Our posture ing their organizational presence in has been one of watchful waiting,” he the community is a loss.” CJ March 2006 CAROLINA 18 Local Government JOURNAL

Local Innovation Bulletin Board From Cherokee to Currituck Sprawl: An Economic Phase State to Re-Examine Rules

pponents of urban sprawl Chelmsford, Mass., a town On Coastal Building Curbs argue that it is a recent phe- of 34,000 near Boston, is mulling a By MICHAEL LOWREY nomenon limited to America, merger of its fire stations, elemen- Associate Editor Othe result of destructive public poli- tary schools, and other government RALEIGH cies. A new book by Robert Bruege- functions to ease a budget shortfall panel will re-examine state mann, Sprawl: A Compact History, of more than $3 million. rules on building restrictions in however, argues that urban sprawl is Since the 1960s, about 100 coastal areas. Current regula- a natural part of a city’s growth. proposals for wholesale city-county Ations have made many lots unbuildable Bruegemann says that cities consolidations have been put to vot- and hindered redevelopment on some throughout the world and through- ers across the nation, according to barrier islands. out time have had sprawl. During the National League of Cities. Only “We’re not happy with our meth- the Ming dynasty in the 1400s, the about one-quarter of those measures od,” Courtney Hackney, chairman of Chinese gentry sang the praises of the passed. The number of communities the 15-member Coastal Resources Com- exurban life. Ancient Romans lived in that have pursued smaller unions, mission said to The News & Observer of the rustic “villa suburbana.” such as combining police depart- Raleigh. “It may be that one size does not One size may not fit all when it comes to Modern sprawl happened in ments, is more difficult to gauge. coastal development rules, says a member fit all, when it comes to that rule.” Europe first — London’s popula- The pressure for consolidation of the Coastal Resources Commission Under current regulations, wheth- tion density peaked in the early 19th often comes when there are real fis- er and what sort of structure can be built up four signs announcing its sponsor- century; in Paris it happened in the cal constraints, says Donald Borut, on a lot is determined by the distance ship. Park and Recreation Department 1850s; and in New York City in the executive director of the National from the first line of established vegeta- officials haven’t approved the sign’s early 1900s. League of Cities, but there has to be tion and local erosion rates. The location size or design, though they have said Bruegemann argues that urban strong political will on the part of of the line of established vegetation is the signs would be tasteful. sprawl occurs when cities reach a citizens and leadership to do it. not permanent, because storms can wash While companies have previously level of economic maturity. As citi- away beaches, dunes, and houses, turn- sponsored events at county parks, and zens become wealthier, they desire ing lots that once could be built upon other county buildings and greenway more space and to own their own unbuildable. segments have been named for donors homes. With more money, they can Limits up prices A point of contention is how to and volunteers, Mecklenburg County purchase better transportation, which Since 1970, Washington, D.C., treat beach renourishment. The rules does not have a formal policy on the sale includes the automobile. and other coastal cities where hous- currently don’t consider renourished of naming rights. Officials are drafting Today, this trend is not isolated ing prices have exploded have seen beach in establishing building setbacks, a policy, which would require the ap- to America, Bruegemann notes: “a significant increase in the ability under the theory that what man creates, proval of county commission. Despite some of the most of residents to block new projects,” the ocean can reclaim. Many local of- stringent anti-sprawl regulations in transforming vast swaths of the cit- ficials and property owners want state the world and high gas prices, the ies into “homeowners’ cooperatives” rules to consider renourished beaches No TIF proposals yet offered for population of Paris has declined by that are no longer open to growth, like natural beachs if they support almost a third since 1921, while its state approval says economist Edward L. Glaeser vegetation. suburbs have grown. in a National Bureau of Economic Todd Miller, executive director More than a year since North Caro- Barcelona, considered by Research paper. of the N.C. Coastal Federation, said he lina voters barely approved Amendment many a model compact city, has de- The explosion in house prices thinks that using variances to address One, allowing localities to engage in veloped extensive suburbs and has ironically has occurred in areas where individual cases is a better solution than tax increment financing, no proposals experienced the largest population the price of housing was already high, a wholesale rule change. to use TIFs have come before the state loss of any European city in the last making homeownership increasingly “Our concern is, once we open for approval, the Winston-Salem Journal 25 years. unaffordable. The cost of housing this up, there is a lot of pressure to use reports. It could be awhile before a remained reasonable and affordable renourishment to make unbuildable project does. throughout the vast interior of the lots buildable on the oceanfront,” Miller “There wasn’t, at least from our More consolidation country. said. perspective, an expectation of a flood Before 1970 home prices in of these requests once Amendment One Small towns in Florida, Mas- Washington and the rest of the passed. But I am a little surprised that sachusetts, Pennsylvania, and other country mostly reflected the cost of Mecklenburg County Park to there hasn’t been more activity,” said states are trimming costs by com- acquiring land and building on it. sell naming rights? Tim Romocki, acting director of the state bining police and fire departments, Now, construction costs represent and local finance division of the N.C. school districts and other agencies in half or less of a new or existing home’s Mecklenburg County’s Freedom Treasury Department. a new wave of government consolida- price in high-cost cities, Glaeser and Park is a popular destination just outside In a TIF, a locality and developer tion, USA Today reports. his colleagues found. of downtown Charlotte. Among the enter into an agreement about a specific The moves mainly involve The increasing power of ho- park’s attractions is a band shell, which project. Bonds are issued to pay for infra- briskly growing suburban com- meowners to block construction, sponsors concerts. Now a Charlotte car structure improvements for the projects. munities whose boundaries bump forcing buyers to bid up the prices dealership is offering $100,000 to the The additional property tax revenue that up against neighboring towns that on the few homes available, is only county in exchange for naming rights arises in an area around the project is provide the same services with their partly a result of steady growth in to the band shell. used to repay the bonds. own tax dollars. Others are small the portion of the population that “The park commission is fairly “As much money as was spent rural towns that can no longer af- owns homes. strapped, and when someone comes on the campaign, and the urgency of ford separate police, fire, and school It also is a result of the increas- forward with an idea such as this, we getting former governors Hunt and districts. ing willingness of homeowners to listen,” Park and Recreation Director Holshouser involved in its passage, you Richland Township, a commu- use that status through political Wayne Weston said to The Charlotte would have thought at least one or two nity of 10,500 north of Pittsburgh, and activism and the courts to main- Observer. projects would have used it by now,” said three nearby townships are creating tain low density, green spaces, and Under the proposal, Scott Clark’s Bob Orr, former N.C. Supreme Court a regional police force with 30 full- other amenities in their neighbor- Toyota City would donate $20,000 this justice who heads the N.C. Institute for time officers. The effort could save hoods, at the expense of newcom- year and $10,000 each of the next eight Constitutional Law. Richland more than $100,000 a year. ers, the researchers found. CJ years to the Partners to Parks program. “I guess nobody wants to be In exchange, the dealership would put the guinea pig.” CJ CAROLINA March 2006 JOURNAL Local Government 19 State Planning Millions in Grants for Minority Health By MIKE ROUSE tion drug assistance program. were 1.3 times more likely. It cited similar The state secretary of Health and Contributing Editor The fund proclaims that it “invests ratios for diabetes, prostate cancer, breast Human Services, Carmen Hooker- RALEIGH in programs and partnerships to ad- cancer, and stroke. Odom, has made it one of her goals he state plans to give grants of dress access, prevention, education and In addition to those diseases, the to eliminate the disparities in health up to half a million dollars to research that help all North Carolinians Health and Wellness Fund lists obesity statistics among the races. She assigned government agencies or nonprofit achieve better health.” and cardiovascular diseases as targets the Office of Minority Health and Health Tcorporations that can devise suitable Officials of the fund say they see for the grant proposals. Disparities to coordinate efforts among plans to improve the health of North no discrimination in the grants for which An organization or agency apply- the other divisions in the department. Carolina residents. they are now seeking proposals, which ing for a grant can ask for up to $50,000 Elsewhere, the National Institutes Among the requirements are: are to help equal- for a planning pe- of Health, a branch of the U.S. Depart- • The organization asking for the ize the health of riod that can span ment of Health and Human Services, money must have a record of successful whites and people the last six months has an agency that focuses on nothing projects to improve public health. of other races. It Grants have been ap- of 2005. It can ask else. It is called the National Center for • It must submit a clean audit calls the program for up to $450,000 Minority Health and Health Disparities, report. the Eliminating proved for 15 counties to finance the pro- and it operates on a budget of about $200 • The measures described in its Health Disparities and 45 nonprofit orga- gram itself, which million a year. grant proposal must be ones that have Initiative. might require up The U.S. Centers for Disease proven to be effective. Alison K. nizations, ranging from to three years to Control in Atlanta has reorganized its • The beneficiaries must be minori- M c L a u r i n , a implement. Office of the director to create an Office ties. It will be all right if some whites spokeswoman for $5,000 for a planning Government of Minority Health. happen to benefit, but the emphasis is the Health and grant to about $50,000 health programs Many states have followed the on other races. Wellness Trust specifically tar- trend by financing programs that are The money — $8.9 million alto- Fund, said in an for an implementation geting minority aimed at improving the health of people gether — was ponied up by the N.C. interview that races are not new, of races other than whites. Health and Wellness Trust Fund. That is proposed projects grant. and they are not Foundations are funding research, one of the agencies that were established would not be de- confined to state and universities have produced papers by the General Assembly to receive nied grants just government, al- advocating such programs and defend- and spend money from the 1998 settle- because they would aid whites as well though North Carolina got an early start. ing them against criticism that raced- ment between states and four cigarette as members of other races. She said that The state’s Office of Minority Health based programs are an inappropriate manufacturers. whites in poor socio-economic condi- and Health Disparities has existed in use of public money. Part of the settlement money is tions are among those who are on the the Department of Health and Human No critics — at least none audible spent for programs to help people quit short end of health disparities. Services for 14 years. to ordinary people — have questioned smoking or discourage them from start- But the ethnic nature of the project The office operates on a budget of the government’s statistics on race and ing. Some can also be used to promote is clear in the call for grant proposals. more than $1 million a year. Last year diseases. But there have been other sug- the general health of the population, It cites the 2003 Racial and Ethnic the General Assembly gave it a one-time gestions for what to do about it. which is the function of the Health and Disparities Report Card, published by appropriation of $2 million extra to For example, Christopher H. Fore- Wellness Trust Fund. the North Carolina Office of Minority distribute to agencies around the state man Jr. of the Brookings Institution has The fund is governed by an 18- Health and Health Disparities. The fund as a “Community-Focused Eliminating suggested that “the African-American member commission, composed mostly says the Report Card showed that “Af- Health Disparities Initiative.” community must become ever more of doctors, other health professionals, rican American, Native American and A spokesman for the office, Leslie engaged by, and anchored within, the and academics. Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue Latino population groups experience Brown, said grants have been approved private sector.” is the chairman. the greatest disparities in most areas of for 15 county health departments and It is there, in the private world, Since 2001 when it was organized, health status” between 1997 and 2001. 45 nonprofit organizations. They range Foreman wrote, that there is wealth the fund has disbursed more than $300 The report said that blacks were 1.2 from about $5,000 for a planning grant “from which flows both an enlarged million — $127 million for health initia- times more likely to die of heart disease to about $50,000 for an implementation collective voice and expanded per- tives and $78 million to fund a prescrip- than were whites, and American Indians grant. sonal choice.” CJ

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From the Liberty Library Higher education takes a hit

• When a National Review col- league teased writer Rod Dreher one Declining By Degrees Should Be Summer Reading day about his visit to the local food • Edited by Richard H. Hersh and that the result will be “an even greater co-op to pick up a week’s supply of John Merrow: Declining by Degrees: temptation to abdicate judgment in favor organic vegetables (“Ewww, that’s Higher Education at Risk; Palgrave of expert opinion.” so lefty”), he started thinking about Macmillan; 2005; 244 pp; $24.95 David Kirp, who teaches public the ways he and his conservative policy at Berkeley, laments, “Because of family lived that put them outside By GEORGE C. LEEF the generally shabby quality of under- the bounds of conventional Repub- Contributing Editor graduate education, the United States is lican politics. Shortly thereafter Dre- RALEIGH not getting the educated citizenry that is her wrote an essay about “crunchy ooks critical of higher education required if the country is going to stay cons,” people whose “Small Is Beau- in America used to be written competitive.” And Murray Sperber, who tiful” style of conservative politics almost exclusively by “outsiders” has twice spoken at Pope Center events, often put them at odds with GOP Bwho were armed with well-sharpened reveals the nasty secret of many cam- orthodoxy, and sometimes even in philosophical axes — Dinesh D’Souza puses — that there is a “nonaggression the same camp as lefties outside and Charles Sykes, for example. Today, pact” between the students and faculty the Democratic mainstream. The however, we are starting to find critical members. response to the article was impas- books coming from educational cen- The deal is that students get high sioned: Dreher was deluged by trists. Evidently the decay is now so grades and an undemanding workload e-mails from conservatives across unavoidable that even “insiders” can’t in return for not expecting much at- America — everyone from a pro-life keep quiet about it. That, by itself, is tention from their professors. He sets vegetarian Buddhist Republican to encouraging. forth several excellent ideas for reform, an NRA staffer with a passion for or- Declining by Degrees is a compila- including the establishment of a system ganic gardening — who responded tion of 15 essays, all by individuals who for rewarding professors either for re- to say, “Hey, me too!” In Crunchy would not be considered opponents of search or teaching excellence. (Currently, Cons, Dreher reports on the depth our higher-ed system. The book’s edi- teaching counts for almost nothing.) and scope of this phenomenon, tors, Hersh and Merrow are, respectively, of the institution. A crucial implication Sports writer Frank Deford con- which “is redefining the taxonomy a former college president and a former of that is that the furious dispute over tributes a fine essay, “America’s Mod- of America’s political and cultural teacher who often reports on education “affirmative action” is quite pointless, ern Peculiar Institution,” wherein he landscape.” Learn more at www. for NPR. This is undeniably a “main- but Fallows does not make the point. discusses the harm that is done by the randomhouse.com/crown. stream” project (a PBS documentary The Washington Post’s excellent excessive attention paid to college athlet- was made to accompany it!) and ought education reporter, Jay Mathews, con- ics. Arthur Levine follows with “Discon- to open a lot of eyes to the waste and tributes one of the book’s strongest nects Between Students and Their Col- • Martin Gilbert tells the story folly that is widespread in our colleges essays, “Caveat Lector: Unexamined leges.” He says students tend to desire of Winston Churchill’s connection and universities. Assumptions about Quality in Higher more contact with their professors, while to America in Churchill and America. In their introduction, Hersh and Education.” professors want to limit student contact, Churchill’s mother was the daugh- Merrow write, “Higher education, long He advises students and parents to and that students want more emphasis ter of an American entrepreneur, viewed as the crown jewel of American read the claims colleges and universities on teaching while professors are far more and the British prime minister spent education, is tarnished….We found an make about their great commitments interested in doing research. much of his 70 adult years in close insidious erosion of quality that we now to learning with considerable skepti- After two weak essays dealing with contact with the United States. In two believe places this nation at risk.” Ameri- cism and that is because there is no real “diversity” issues, the book concludes world wars, his was the main Brit- can K-12 education, they aver, “contin- evidence on the extent to which schools with two fine ones. Julie Johnson Kidd’s ish voice urging the closest possible ues to wallow in mediocrity” and “the actually educate. He writes that colleges “It is Only a Port of Call,” correctly cooperation with the United States. rot is creeping upward” into colleges “insist that what they do has to be good observes that college attendance has Gilbert was appointed Churchill’s and universities. Strong words, but the because their professors have fine repu- become a “credentialing process,” that official biographer in 1968 and has essays that follow support them. tations and their graduates go on to suc- has “little relationship to education at ever since been collecting archival In the first essay, Gene Maeroff, cessful careers.” The trouble, of course, all.” She quotes a German student who and personal documentation that a senior fellow at Teachers College, is that professors with fine reputations had seen American college life first-hand explores every twist and turn of Columbia University, observes that often do very little teaching and that the and said that the only thing on American Churchill’s relationship with the most reporting on higher education is students would probably have gone on students’ minds seems to be where to United States. See www.simon-says. weak and ill-serves the public. “Higher to successful careers anyway. find a party. com for more information. education’s weaknesses and shortcom- Carol G. Schneider, president of And Bard College President Leon ings,” he writes, “remain largely out of the American Association of Colleges Botstein (also a well-known musician) sight to reporters, many of whom are and Universities, focuses on the de- concludes the book in a minor key: “Al- • Based on a decade of research quick to seize on almost any foible at cline of liberal education, observing, though more Americans are completing and on interviews with many of the elementary and secondary level. “From the Ivy league to the nation’s more years of formal schooling than ever Mao’s close circle in China who In other words, higher education is growing system of two-year colleges, before, including time in college, we find have never talked before — and Teflon-coated, remarkably immune to the academy has lowered its sights for ourselves confronted, it seems, despite with virtually everyone outside criticism.” liberal education from the entire college more exposure to learning, with an ab- China who had significant deal- James Fallows, national correspon- curriculum to that small fraction of the sence of progress in these areas.” ings with him — Mao: The Unknown dent for Atlantic Monthly, contributes an undergraduate experience known as Declining by Degrees paints a dis- Story is “the most authoritative life excellent essay, “College Admissions: general education.” tinctly unflattering portrait of higher of the former Chinese dictator ever A Substitute for Quality?” Fallows Vartan Gregorian, former presi- education in the United States. Everyone written.” Authors Jung Chang and wonders why there is such a do-or-die dent of Brown University and current who plays a role in policy should read Jon Halliday show Mao was not emphasis on getting into an elite institu- president of the Carnegie Corporation, it. Everyone who has children in college driven by idealism or ideology. He tion “since there is so little demonstrable agrees with Schneider that liberal edu- or who will be attending college in the schemed, poisoned and blackmailed connection between the selectivity of cation is largely neglected. “Education future should read it. In fact, it would to get his way and after conquering the school a student attends and that must help us understand the sweep be quite useful for students themselves China in 1949, his secret goal was to student’s long-term success or satisfac- of our culture, the achievements, the to read it. UNC ought to consider mak- dominate the world. In chasing this tion in life.” problems, the solutions, and the failures ing it a “summer reading” book. CJ dream he caused the deaths of 38 That’s an important and rarely ap- that mark our history.” If students have million people. More information at preciated point. The value of a college received little or none of the broaden- George C. Leef is executive director www.randomhouse.com. CJ education depends vastly more on the ing and deepening of the intellect that of the Pope Center for Higher Education efforts of the student than on the prestige comes with a liberal education, he fears Policy. CAROLINA March 2006 JOURNAL The Learning Curve 21 Penelope Barker’s ‘Edenton Tea Party’ Inspired Defense of Liberty any Americans have heard of a seemingly innocuous tea party. But, I abounded. While visiting London, North goods and alerted King George III that the Boston Tea Party of 1773. think she was the brilliant mastermind of Carolina Royalist Arthur Iredell was they had done so. Far fewer can tell of the Eden- what happened there on Oct. 25, 1774. vexed after hearing the news of the tea The Edenton women’s action Mton Tea Party of 1774 . I can count a few, With aplomb, Barker probably con- party. In a letter to his brother James, was also a political first in U.S. history. but I have some fingers left. vinced 47 to 51 women to stop drinking he sardonically asked: “Pray are you Before the 1770s, women did not sign During the Revolution era, Eden- tea and buying English clothes and to becoming patriotic? . . . .Is there a Female petitions. But in Edenton, politically ton, N.C. was a sign the following petition: Congress at Edenton, too?” aware women expressed publicly not hotbed of politi- Truth is many times disguised only a love for their families but also cal debate. After The Provincial Deputies of North as humor, as evidenced by the rest for liberty and for country. Penelope about 50 men, Carolina, having resolved not to drink of Iredell’s letter: “If the Ladies, who Barker most likely reminded them that dressed as In- any more tea, nor wear any more British have ever, since the Amazonian Era, they played an integral part of any at- dians, boarded cloth, many ladies of this province have been esteem[e]d the most formidable tempt to create a virtuous republic. three ships on determined to give memorable proof of their Enemies, if they, I say, should attack Protecting liberty requires persis- Dec. 16, 1773, patriotism, and have accordingly entered us, the most fatal consequence is to be tent boldness, and from time to time, and dumped tea into the following honourable and spirited dreaded. So dextrous in the handling of the unexpected. Sometimes an intrepid in the Boston, association. I send it to you to shew your a dart, each wound they give is mortal individual, such as Penelope Barker, Mass. harbor to Dr. Troy fair countrywomen, how zealously and . . . The more we try to conquer them, needs to inspire the listless and timid protest imposing Kickler faithfully, American ladies follow the laud- the more we are conquered.” among us to steadfastly defend our trade legislation, able example of their husbands, and what Although there was no dumping liberties. many North Carolinians approved. opposition your matchless Ministers may of tea into the ocean, the petition penned See Richard Dillard, “Historic In 1774, the North Carolina province expect to receive from a people thus firmly at the Edenton Tea Party was nothing Tea Party of Edenton” in The North passed nonimportation resolves to pro- united against them. less than a bold display of patriotism Carolina Booklet vol. 23 (Raleigh, test British trade regulation. That year at We cannot be indifferent on any and love of liberty. 1926); Linda K. Kerber, Women of the tea parties, a fashionable form of enter- occasion that appears nearly to affect the During the early 1770s, Whiggish Republic: Intellect and Ideology in tainment, polemics and ardent gesturing peace and happiness of our country, and men (those who supported the colonies) Revolutionary America (Chapel Hill, no doubt heated the rooms and hallways . . . it is a duty which we owe, not only to sometimes blamed their spouses, moth- 1980); William S. Powell, North Carolina of Edenton. Soon, an unforeseen defense our near and dear connections, . . . but to ers, sisters, and daughters for preventing Through Four Centuries (Chapel Hill, of liberty occurred there. ourselves. . . . the creation of a distinct American cul- 1989); Lou Rogers Wehlitz, Tar Heel It is unknown whether the Edenton ture. They would rather annul an Ameri- Women (Raleigh, 1949). CJ Tea Party was planned. What is known The petition shocked the British can boycott, the story goes, than divorce is that Penelope Barker, the dynamic and loyal colonists. London magazines English tea or clothes. The Edenton Tea wife of Thomas Barker, treasurer of the labeled the Edenton women uncon- Party petition proved otherwise, for Troy Kickler is director of the North Province of North Carolina, organized trollable, and mezzotint caricatures the Edenton women boycotted English Carolina History Project. Don’t Bring a Knife

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Short Takes on Culture No detectable improvement Film Touches Broad Themes Bok Bursts the College Bubble • “Good Night, and Good Luck” original. • Derek Bok: Our Underachieving Col- Warner Home Video Wright couples his faith to the leges; Princeton University Press; 413 Directed by George Clooney novel with a realism rarely seen in pp, $29.95 period romances. Pigs, chickens, and n 1954, at the height of the Cold horses join the actors in most outdoor By GEORGE LEEF War, newsman (and Greensboro scenes; filmed entirely on location Contributing Editor native) Edward R. Murrow fo- in the U.K., the streets in town are RALEIGH Icused several episodes of his TV show muddy and candle-soot stains the mericans are so used to hearing “See it Now” on the excesses of Sen. ceilings in most houses. that their higher-education sys- Joseph McCarthy and his pursuit of al- Lizzie Bennett’s plain, coarse tem is “the envy of the world” Athat most will be surprised to learn that leged communists. Oscar-nominated dresses are befitting a rural gentle- “Good Night, and Good Luck,” is a man’s daughter and her petticoats are the former president of Harvard thinks recreation of the events surrounding rarely free of mud and dust. Wright’s it’s loaded with underachievers. He those shows. version of this classic Austen tale is does, though, and Derek Bok’s most Clooney has constructed a more fresh and real than the acclaimed recent book is worth scrutinizing. focused, nuanced film. The setting 1995 BBC miniseries. Bok, in Our Underachieving Colleges, is mainly the claustrophobic, small Despite the realism and Austen’s doubts that, despite all the resources we offices and studios of CBS News. cutting, and humorous, commentary lavish on higher education, there has David Strathairn’s dead-on portrayal on society and manners, “Pride & been any detectable improvement in col- of Murrow and archival footage Prejudice” is still a movie for and lege education. Unlike consumer prod- of Sen. McCarthy propel the film about women. A must-see for slumber ucts where progress can be measured, (Clooney plays Murrow’s producer parties, girls’ nights or bonding time we don’t have an adequate yardstick for Fred Friendly). between mother and daughter. Girls higher education. “Good Night, and Good Luck” of all ages will delight in Lizzie’s wit, “No published reports exist that on the fundamentals of the American has been considered by some as laugh at her sisters’ antics and swoon reveal how much undergraduates have system of government. Bok suggests using the Red Scare of the 1950s over the eligible and consummate Mr. progressed intellectually, let alone how that colleges ought to make such courses as a metaphor for today’s War on Darcy. I doubt it will capture a male such progress compares across colleges,” part of a required curriculum. Terror. Though one plausible way audience in quite the same way. he writes. That lack of measurement Alas, other areas where Bok finds to interpret the film, “Good Night, — JENNA ASHLEY means that there is little or no pressure underachievement are not so much edu- and Good Luck” touches on broader ROBINSON on schools to improve. In fact, Bok con- cational as sociological. He is a propo- themes, including journalistic ethics tends that in some important respects nent, for example, of “service learning” and the inherent conflict between they may be retrogressing. courses. The idea here is that students television as medium to entertain The ability to write is a good ex- should be able to earn credits through and inform. Murrow, you see, did Free papers may force change ample. Almost every college requires courses that entail doing some kind of more than straight news; even in its students to take at least one English com- • Free newspapers community service and later “reflect- supposed 1950s heyday, television position course, but few can show good Distributed daily and weekly ing” on the problems they addressed. “news” devoted considerable time results. As the National Commission Major Cities Bok believes that such courses are to celebrity — proven by the archival on Writing has found, many employ- important because they instill “greater footage, which included an interview ers regard the writing ability of college North Carolina’s weekly alter- awareness of human needs and the with Liberace about his “marriage graduates to be shockingly poor. Bok native newspapers — the Rhinoceros inadequacies of laws and policies that prospects.” explains this serious underachievement: Times, Independent Weekly, and others affect the poor.” The trouble is that the — MICHAEL LOWREY “Regular faculty have no professional — are great, free guides to what’s hap- interest in teaching composition courses slender learning component is apt to pening. They are also the future. and look upon them chiefly as a means consist of little more than conventional In our nation’s capital, there are to support their graduate students…and liberal nostrums about welfare without ‘Prejudice’ a worthy remake now two free dailies. The Washington freshmen are too new to the university any consideration of the arguments that Post started Express as a free paper for to complain.” Writing — perhaps the government harms the poor much more • “Pride and Prejudice” (2005) Metro commuters. It faces competi- most important skill any student needs than it helps them. MCA Home Video tion from the Washington Examiner, to learn — is thus taught mostly by The weakest part of the book is Directed by Joe Wright another free tabloid. Neither paper is inexperienced graduate students who Bok’s advocacy of greater campus “di- going to challenge the position of the themselves may not be particularly versity.” As is nearly always the case “It is a truth universally ac- real Post or the pay-only Washington adept writers. with diversity proponents, he greatly knowledged, that a single man in Times, but they should raise warning Furthermore, English departments overestimates the benefit of having possession of a good fortune must flags for mid-sized papers such as have become havens for radicals who schools try to engineer a student body be in want of a wife.” Raleigh’s News & Observer. want to use courses for instruction that “looks like America” while entirely So begins Jane Austen’s classic The Washington Post is a bar- more in ideology than in good sentence ignoring the costs of doing so. novel, Pride & Prejudice. Joe Wright, gain at 35 cents (even less for home structure. While Bok takes pains to That sounds nice, but it’s hard to the most recent director to tackle delivery): full of local news, sports, distance himself from people whom he see exactly what race relations problem Austen’s most beloved tome, begins insightful commentary on its edito- generally dismisses as polemical critics America still has that preferential admis- his big screen adaptation the same rial page, and reporting of national (e.g., Dinesh D’Souza), he gives support sion policies on prestige campuses can way. Austen devotees will delight and world news. The N&O is rather to them by correctly noting that leftists solve. Racial animosity has virtually in Wright’s faithful translation from less useful in all of those areas even have largely taken over composition disappeared from the United States book to movie. Keira Knightley plays though it costs would-be readers 50- theory in order to “use language to and college students are quite unlikely Lizzie Bennett to perfection; she’s cents a copy. make the public accept the oppression to harbor any. Bok completely misses fiery, intelligent, and youthful. Mat- Free dailies, like mass transit, of women, minorities, poor people, and the downside of “affirmative action,” thew McFadyen is aloof and diffident may be able to function only in other exploited groups.” Little wonder namely that it brings in students of as Mr. Darcy, yet so very enticing. densely populated areas, but their that kids can’t write. considerably different academic abil- When the two banter in a ballroom success in those areas should further Bok is also on solid ground in ity, with resulting pressure to lower scene plucked directly from the pages challenge the traditional dailies here pointing out that U.S. colleges under- academic standards. CJ of the novel, they are as witty and to rethink their business models. achieve in preparing students for citi- charming as ever they are in Austen’s — JOSEPH COLETTI CJ zenship. At most schools, students can George C. Leef is executive director of graduate without ever taking a course the Pope Center for Higher Education Policy. CAROLINA March 2006 JOURNAL The Learning Curve 23 Private Election Funding Supported in Powerful Essays • Edited by John Samples: Welfare for experiment with tributors take apart er, demolishes the “false assumptions Politicians?: Taxpayer Financing of Cam- tax-funded cam- the arguments for behind free [television] time;” “Reform paigns; Cato Institute; 2005; 160 pp; paigns. In 2002, taxpayer-financed without Reason: The Scientific Method $18.95; (hardcover)/$12.95 (paper) the Massachusetts campaigns. Or per- and Campaign Finance,” by political legislature placed haps I should say scientists Jeffrey Milyo and David Primo, By BRADLEY A. SMITH an initiative before 10 other contribu- begins by noting that, “the public debate Guest Contributor voters to have the tors — two authors, over campaign finance reform rarely — if COLUMBUS, Ohio government-fund Paul Taylor and ever — makes use of serious scholarly magine a government policy that campaigns. Voters Michael J. Malbin research,” and, after summarizing that provides benefits to all citizens who in that liberal state — argue, respec- research, concludes that, “conventional want them, but is not mandatory; defeated the mea- tively, in favor of wisdom greatly exaggerates the role of Iwhich is paid for not through taxes, but sure by the largest “free” television money in American politics.” through voluntary contributions; and margin of any bal- broadcast time and Other essays similarly demon- which adds nothing to the government lot initiative in the increased govern- strate the failure of government-funded debt. Sound good? This is a description state’s history. ment subsidies to campaign systems. Chip Mellor of of the United States’ traditional system Supporters of campaigns. In other the Institute for Justice, and Robert of privately funded political campaigns. tax-funded cam- words, this selec- Franciosi of the Goldwater Institute And the best is yet to come: The cost of paigns, however, are tion of essays is by demonstrate the failure of “clean elec- the program falls almost entirely on the well-financed — by no means balanced. tion” laws to achieve their objectives in wealthiest Americans. some estimates, But it is always fair, Arizona, and show how the law tends Oddly enough, it is precisely more than $200 mil- and it makes for to bias elections in favor of supporters this last factor, the fact that the dis- lion has been spent a devastating cri- of big government. Patrick Basham and semination of political information in by groups dedicated to lobbying for tique of tax-funded campaigns. Martin Zelder reach similar conclusions political campaigns is paid almost en- “campaign finance reform” since 1995 For many, it seems intuitively ob- after reviewing the results of Maine’s tirely by voluntary contributions from — and persistent. By promoting ballot vious that privately funded campaigns “clean elections” experiment. Samples the wealthiest Americans, that spurs initiatives as “clean election” laws, they lead to inequality and corruption. But demonstrates how taxpayer funding of constant calls for “public” financing of have succeeded in passing government the evidence tends to show that the op- presidential elections has also failed to political campaigns. According to the financing plans in posite is true — a meet its stated goals. “reformers” who promote what are Arizona, Vermont, system without What makes these essays impres- more properly called “government-” and Maine, and limits on private sive is their cumulative power. The or “tax”-funded campaigns, the system hope to take their A system without limits contributions and authors avoid hot rhetoric in favor of an of voluntary campaign funding results proposals nation- spending tends accessible but relentless recital of actual in both political inequality and govern- wide. With rare on private contributions to be more open data. They do not argue that the goals ment corruption. Officeholders ignore exceptions, there and spending tends to to change and to of tax-financed campaigns are wrong, the common good to bend to the will has been no orga- new ideas, more but rather that tax-financed campaigns of their contributors, and contributors nized resistance to be more open to change responsive to vot- uniformly fail to achieve those goals, exercise unequal, or “undue,” influence these efforts, and ers, and less open and in the process damage our democ- over public policy. so “pro-reform” and to new ideas. to political ma- racy. And they conclude that because Nevertheless, when given a choice, arguments tend nipulation. Thus, tax-funding proposals are based on a Americans have shown little desire to to dominate the the most powerful faulty understanding of how democracy have taxpayer money given to can- debate. essays in this collection are two that works and the role money plays in de- didates to campaign. Though it does Welfare for Politicians? is a small but succinctly marshal the growing body of mocracy, they are destined to fail. CJ not raise tax liability, barely one in 10 significant effort to redress that imbal- evidence supporting privately funded Americans opts for $3 of his federal tax ance. Editor John Samples, director of the campaigns as the fairest, most open Bradley A. Smith is professor of law return to go to the Presidential Campaign Center for Representative Government system of funding. “Why Subsidize the at Capital University and former chairman Fund, the country’s longest-running at the Cato Institute, and 12 other con- Soapbox?” by Samples and Adam Thier- of the Federal Election Commission.

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March 2006 CAROLINA 24 Opinion JOURNAL

Commentary Silence of the Lambs

ho says American jour- cartoon. My years of experience in nalists are a bunch of the mainstream media tell me that pussycats, just because there are three main reasons why Wthey won’t print a scary cartoon of the press lay down: Muhammad? Like sharks, the media • Liberal Philosophy. The traditionally has demonstrated a keen debate over whether liberals ability to sense blood and swarm dominate journalism is long over. toward it. Their philosophy is entrenched American blood, that is. from coast to coast. Their liberalism Right now they’re going after Dick dovetails nicely with the Democrat- Cheney’s jugular — for ic Party’s. And everyone a hunting accident he knows where Demo- didn’t report in time crats stand on the war, for the press’s deadline. political correctness, and And President Bush’s “diversity.” head, of course, remains • Publishers and on the chopping block. Corporate Bosses. Even American officials though the public thinks are easy game, a turkey otherwise, editors don’t Editorial shoot for journalists. make the really big deci- That’s because the First Richard sions at newspapers and Amendment guaran- Wagner at TV networks. Publish- Women Dominate on Campuses tees journalists, and all ers and corporate bosses n American college campuses, and science. The chance that any non- U.S. citizens, that right. do, because they hire the the ratio of women to men is college guy would have studied those American troops, God bless them editors — and they can fire them approaching 60-40. Of every 100 hard disciplines and gone on to work all, are bravely sacrificing them- at will. Publishers and corporate Ostudents who entered college last fall, 58 in math, science, or engineering is just selves today in Iraq and Afghani- bigwigs don’t want the bottom line were women. The trend of more women about zero. stan for our rights and to avenge to suffer. A messy encounter with and fewer men in college has been going Although the ratio of men to wom- years of terrorism waged in the Muslims, such as a boycott, protest, on for decades. en in college is not a problem in and of name of Muhammad. or perhaps a riot, would dampen For example, this year’s incoming itself, it is indicative of a problem. But the prophet gets a free profits. freshman class at UNC-Chapel Hill was For years, there has been a move- pass from almost all of the media. • Downright Fear. Main- only 41.6 percent male. Although group ment in American K-12 education that That’s because, journalists say, it stream journalists themselves suffer statistical disparities usually set college is built upon the notion that schools would be “offensive” to Muslims nightmares that should they offend administrators into a frenzy of concern must try to make boys more like girls. to print a cartoon depicting the any Muslim they will be kid- over “fairness,” and “social justice,” this Christina Hoff Sommers, author of the prophet (one included here). Of napped and beheaded post-haste. one elicits only yawns. Stephen Farmer, excellent book The War Against Boys course, all of us know how touchy- Failing that, at least the offended director of undergraduate admissions calls it the “feminization” of educa- feely the media has been over the Muslim(s) might make the journal- at Chapel Hill says, “We really have tion. The core idea is that most of the years about depicting ists’ lives uncomfort- made no attempt to balance the class. world’s problems stem from predomi- Christian icons. “Art” of able. Icy stares from We are gender-blind in applications, nantly male traits such as aggression the Crucifix in a bottle their liberal colleagues very scrupulously so.” and competition and the solution is to of urine and a statue of and ostracism from the Most college administrator aren’t socialize boys to be more cooperative the Virgin Mary smeared journalistic community, worried about the increasing dominance and nurturing, like girls. with excrement evoked too, serve to keep any of women on campus, but is there any Some of the implications of that tears of sadness in many would-be mavericks in reason why it should concern us? The theory are that reading material that a journalist’s eye. the corral. answer is both no — and yes. might appeal to boys (e.g., stories in- Page One photos I am sorry that I No, because the common idea volving adventure or conflict) must be of protesters burning the might have offended that among any large population, such replaced with material that conveys Stars and Stripes here my former colleagues as student bodies, we should expect to “better” messages. Competition is also and abroad also pass the by revealing these ugly see all groups of people proportionally reduced or eliminated, as by having journalistic smell test. truths. But I am even represented is mistaken. students do group projects rather than But that’s not considered offensive sorrier that journalists, en masse, People make decisions as individu- working individually. Even the games to patriotic Americans, especially failed their duty, disgraced their als, each person trying to do whatever kids play during recess have to be those whose loved ones died pro- profession, abandoned their nation, is best for himself given his particular controlled to make sure that they don’t tecting the grand old flag and their defiled the victims of Sept. 11, and circumstances. Students who decide to reinforce all those bad latent tendencies nation. scorned American troops as the enroll in college, or not to, make that in boys. There’s a different set of jour- radical Muslim conspiracy spreads choice carefully. With each individual The result of all this is to make nalistic standards, as well, when it from continent to continent. presumably making an intelligent deci- school a lot less interesting for boys. comes to separation of church and As Winston Churchill III sion, the overall balance among groups Of course, many still do well, but the state in America. It’s abhorrent to trumpeted in a speech in Raleigh a doesn’t matter. tendency is to cause marginal students the press that Christians continu- couple of weeks ago, I hope Ameri- Since male students are more to lose interest. Far more boys than girls ally try to meddle in the affairs of can journalists, like their European likely to go into crucial fields such as get bored with school and drop out. The state. But it’s OK, the media says, counterparts did, someday find science and engineering, shouldn’t we feminization of education has much to for Muhammad to lead Middle enough backbone to join the rest worry that the United States will face a do with that. Eastern governments and to wage of us fighting the real enemies of shortage of scientists and engineers in The dominance of women on “jihad.” America. CJ the future? campus may be alerting us to a seri- This might offend many of my Not really. That is because the ous problem — the fact that early former colleagues in the media, but set of young men who are not going to education is turning many boys off I think there are other forces at play Richard Wagner is editor of college doesn’t intersect with the set of from making the most of the chance in the decision not to publish the Carolina Journal. young men who are interested in math to develop their minds. CJ CAROLINA March 2006 JOURNAL Opinion 25 Bluffing on Tax Reform Commentary Leaders would rather decide how to spend your money The Arts and Public Funding f North Carolina politicians really base. And once again, it seems that what- meant what they say about tax re- ever politicians may have said before arry Wheeler thinks that his state rarely works (I know, I’ve tried it in form, they wouldn’t do what they or during the forum, the most likely pay of about $100,000 to direct other contexts). Arts organizations Ido. scenario is yet another rate increase on the North Carolina Museum of will inevitably measure their value, Specifically, if there really was a a narrow base. LArt is far too low. So do the members of and communicate it to potential widespread belief among state legisla- Sen. Tony Rand, the powerful the N.C. Museum of Art Foundation, funders, based on perceptions of tors — as there appears to be among head of the Senate Rules Committee, is who have for years supplemented his relative stature or merit. If you are editorial writers — that the state’s tax proposing another fiscal swap involv- salary with private funds adding up trying to get prized pieces of art code relies too much on high marginal ing counties and the state. The first one, to six figures a year. donated to your museum, you are income and sales-tax taxes and not in 2002, consisted of state government In 2005, according to going to care about how enough on a broader tax base, lawmakers confiscating what were previously local a critical new report from your museum is perceived wouldn’t continue to raise the tax rates revenues and then “allowing” counties State Auditor Les Mer- in the art world – because on the current, narrow base. to raise their sales tax by a half-cent to ritt, Wheeler’s combined the donors probably do. That’s what the General Assembly offset the loss. Essentially, legislators compensation exceeded The second proposi- has done since 2001, almost every year. were compelling local governments $350,000. The foundation tion is that the supposed The sales-tax rate went from 6 percent to be their tax collectors. Now, Rand has also supplemented the public-education function statewide (6.5 percent in Mecklenburg suggests that in exchange for the “gift” salaries of some 50 other of museums, sympho- County, thanks to an extra transit tax) of removing from counties the burden employees of the state-op- nies, and other “high art” before 2001 to 7 percent statewide (7.5 of paying for a share of the Medicaid erated Raleigh museum, programs, if accepted as percent in Taxlenburg) right now. The program, counties should surrender an sometimes substantially. legitimate, can be more ef- top income tax rate also went up, to 8.25 entire penny of the sales tax back to the As it happens, I ficiently structured and fi- percent from 7.75 percent. Theoretically, state. Then, the state would authorize agree with Larry Wheeler nanced in ways other than those tax rates are scheduled to fall back the locals to levy yet another penny sales and his benefactors that having state government one-half cent. But lawmakers have said tax in its place. running a major Ameri- own and operate them. that before, only to reimpose them. Don’t That’s indicative of today’s politi- can art museum is a job that likely For example, if groups of public hold your breath. cal leaders: contrary to what may have deserves far more than $100,000 a schoolchildren form a significant Now, in the aftermath of the been said at the forum, or what may be year. I also agree with the state audi- part of the annual attendance of a Emerging Issues Forum at N.C. State said in the future, most seem genuinely tor that intermingling public and museum, then route the taxpayer University last month, a two-day affair uninterested in pursuing tax reform. private money for staff employment subsidy through the schools and let dedicated to discussions of tax reform, What they want is more of your money at a state agency raises significant educators decide how best to use it. there is another round of editorials and to spend. They want it because they are questions of equity and conflict of Perhaps they will choose to load up columns calling for legislative action, convinced they will spend it better than interest. the buses and head to the museum, specifically on broadening the sales-tax you will. It’s as simple as that. CJ The solution is not to whack where they will pay a reasonable the current museum director’s pay, admission price. or replace him with a lower-cost Third, reality intrudes on this alternative. The solution is to move theoretical justification, anyway. Don’t Kill the ‘Growth’ Goose the N.C. Museum of Art into the The fact of the matter is that most private, voluntary sector where it consumers of the service of view- Citizens who link growth with new taxes will fight against it belongs. Keep these three points in ing art are relatively well-educated, orth Carolina’s rapidly growing — that’s what they will get. mind. relatively wealthy people. They areas — the urban counties, the A better approach would be to seek First, state government doesn’t are neither a representative sample coastal and mountain resort ways to make local growth pay for itself get to set the terms of the labor of the taxpaying population nor a Ncommunities, the suburbs — are full of by restructuring government policy and market. Managers can certainly group of disadvantaged people for earnest, well-meaning, enthusiastic local finances. Here are some of the elements set compensation amounts for top whom some might argue taxpayer politicians and civic boosters who are that should be included: executives within state agencies, but subsidies should be afforded. State convinced that growth is good but that it • Make public schools less ex- those agencies compete with private ownership and funding of arts confers more fiscal costs than benefits on pensive to build, more efficient to entities (companies or nonprofits) facilities largely means confiscating local governments. Not coincidentally, operate, and less favored over private for labor, materials, and clientele. the money of people whose artistic many are in the real-estate business. alternatives. There is no shortage of If in order to avoid angering tax- sensibilities tend towards profitable Growth is much to be desired, sound public policies to further these payers or managers in other state forms of arts and entertainment they say, but it doesn’t pay for itself. So objectives. agencies, the state holds executive – nice-looking prints, rock concerts, “we” must pay if we want to continue to • Build new limited-access high- compensation below that available country-music festivals – in order to grow. If we continue to grow, however, way lanes with the maximum amount from competitors, the result will be reduce the ticket prices for wealthier we must pay more. of private investment and user finance to lose top-flight managers. people who prefer visiting muse- The charitable explanation for all via electronic tolls, both policies used Now, there’s an argument to ums and symphonies. this is that these folks have never spelled in other states and countries to provide be made that the state shouldn’t I appreciate fine art. And I out their views with enough clarity to needed transportation capacity. care much about this. What dif- appreciate the managerial talents of spot the problem. • Alleviate the financial burden ference does it make if a taxpayer- Larry Wheeler and other arts profes- As Wake, Mecklenburg, Forsyth, counties shoulder for programs, such funded museum fails to attract sionals. That’s why I think I should and other counties prepare for growth/ as Medicaid, over which county officials the same quality of leadership, or pay my own way, the proceeds of school bond debates over the coming have little to no control. enjoy the same level of cachet, that which can without objection or em- couple of years, the politicians and • Abolish the use of targeted tax a private museum does? The only barrassment be added to their hefty, boosters need to think critically about breaks to attract business start-ups or potential justification of state mu- earned salaries. CJ what they think they know and what expansions. seums is an extension of the state’s they hope to accomplish. Presumably, Make no mistake: if the taxpayers public-education function, the suc- their goal is not to trigger an anti-growth of North Carolina come to believe that cess of which has little to do with John Hood is president of the backlash from testy taxpayers. But if they continued growth will raise their taxes, whether North Carolina’s museum John Locke Foundation and author of keep repeating the aforementioned two they will become opponents of growth is nationally or internationally well- Selling the Dream: Why Advertis- statements — we need more tax money and a constituency for heavy-handed regarded. ing is Good Business, a Praeger book. to attract growth and growth costs more regulations designed to choke or ma- But in practice, this argument Contact him at [email protected]. to service than it generates in tax money nipulate it. CJ March 2006 CAROLINA 26 Opinion JOURNAL

Editorial Briefs

Private wildlife protection When individuals own and control property, they have an incentive to use it in a sustainable manner because they can then reap the benefits. History provides numerous examples of indi- viduals and private groups who have protected species through private initiatives — sometimes even while governments were contributing to the species decline, says H. Sterling Burnett, a senior fellow with the National Center for Policy Analysis. When state governments were awarding bounties for killing birds of prey, a concerned citizen helped found the private Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in eastern Pennsylvania to prevent the slaughter of thousands of hawks, falcons, ospreys, eagles, owls, and other endangered birds. When state governments were awarding bounties for killing seals and sea lions, a for-profit corporation protected the only mainland breeding area for the endangered Steller sea lion. While the federal government owns only 4.7 million acres of wetlands and has encouraged the destruction of private wetlands, about 11,000 private duck clubs have managed to protect five to seven million acres of wetlands from destruc- tion. Expanding the benefits of ownership to the preservation of endangered species habitat could encourage more private conservation efforts. For Ban ‘Equity’ From Political Discussions example, government could offer tax incentives or quity is defined as “the state, or ideal, of being mean less to upper-income folks, how do we mea- credits to landowners who create habitat for en- dangered species on their land. Or, the government just, impartial and fair.” On this basis, who sure this decreased value? Where are the income could pay bounties to people for every breeding could be against equity? It’s a term frequently cutoffs, and how much higher should tax rates be to Eheard in policy discussions, and whatever one’s account for the reduced marginal value of the dol- pair of endangered species found to inhabit their property for all or part (in the case of migratory political stripes, it’s used positively. lar? I don’t think anyone knows. species) of the year, Burnett says. But when people are pressed on what they Only when the committee dropped attaching think equity means, in operational terms, labels of “equitable” and “inequitable” that’s when the love-in falls apart. I to tax proposals was it able to move on. recently experienced this first-hand in My second-latest encounter with two situations, and it’s convinced me defining equity came in a response to a Blood and charity the word equity should be banned from newspaper op-ed piece. The author of public-policy discussions and reserved the piece cited rising shares of national According to the General Social Survey in for harmless applications, such as profes- income going to the highest-income 2002, Americans who support more government sional sports. households as evidence of increased spending are six percentage points less likely to My first recent encounter with poverty in the country. give money to charity each year than those who the pitfalls of equity was in a discus- I replied that this interpretation support spending cuts, and a third less likely to sion about tax policy. About 60 business Michael was a distortion of the facts. Indeed, give money away each month. Walden people, academics, think-tank heads, while higher-income households have Similar trends are seen in blood donation. legislators, and interest- group advo- enjoyed the largest income gains in Those opposed to government aid make up 25 cates had been convened to discuss the state’s tax the past 30 years, lower-income households have percent of the population, but donate more than structure. As soon as we began debating specific tax gained too, just not as much. 30 percent of the blood each year. Supporters of components, it was clear everyone wasn’t on the It’s not a matter of the rich gaining income at government spending to the poor are 28 percent same page when it came to defining equity. the expense of the poor. Rather, it’s a matter of both of the population, but donate just 20 percent of For example, what is an equitable system the rich and the poor gaining, but the rich gaining at the blood. If the population as a whole gave blood like of tax rates for the individual income tax? Some a faster rate. (Incidentally, the reason has to do with the opponents of social spending do, the blood say the only “equitable” system is one where the the increasing returns to education, not inheritance supply would increase by more than a quarter. tax rate rises with the taxpayer’s income. That is, or luck). This gap in blood donations is more than an higher-income taxpayers pay not only more dollars My response was blasted by some as inequi- intellectual curiosity: It can mean the difference in taxes, but they pay a higher percentage of their table. To them, equity in income is a relative term. If between life and death. It also represents the liveli- income in taxes. the rich are gaining income at a faster rate than the hood of important charities serving our nation’s Supporters say such a system is equitable for poor, this, in the eyes of my critics, was considered needy, such as the Red Cross, which receives nearly two reasons. First, higher-income households can inequitable, even if poorer households were still at- 70 percent of its revenues from blood sales. afford to pay a larger share of their income in taxes. taining a higher standard of living. Given these facts about giving, Arthur Second, to equalize the “pain” of paying taxes, those Oh, well, as they say, it’s all in the eyes of the Brooks, professor at Syracuse University’s Max- with more income must pay a larger share because beholder. But now you see why I’m not a fan of the well School of Public Affairs, suggests in The each additional dollar is worth less to them than it is word equity. CJ Wall Street Journal that people who caricature for a lower-income taxpayer. others as “uncompassionate” because of their But such views of equity aren’t universally ac- views on government spending can afford a bit cepted. Just because a richer taxpayer has more and more humility and introspection, and a bit less can pay more doesn’t mean she should be taxed at Michael L. Walden is a William Neal Reynolds dis- pious sloganeering. CJ a higher rate. This isn’t logic based on equity; it’s tinguished professor at North Carolina State University logic based on confiscation. Even if added dollars and an adjunct scholar of the John Locke Foundation. CAROLINA March 2006 JOURNAL Opinion 27 Cleveland County ‘Addressing Central Office Costs’

To the editor, reassignment, resignations, retirement, really can control the outcomes are the instead of building roads as it was Recently I emailed you concern- and reduction to part-time status. The big-boys of capital finance. instituted for, there maybe an issue of ing a story in the Carolina Journal that full-time-equivalent positions reduced That is, the plutocratic elites and accounting mismanagement. indicated the merged Cleveland County have resulted in a reduction of over nine their academic and technocratic servants According to General Accepted Schools had added a number of admin- full-time central office positions. who will dominate the marketplace Accounting Practices there are specific istrative positions since the merger. We We believe that our board has been such as the Rockefellers, Rothchilds, rules regarding a government entity have investigated responsible in addressing the reduction Morgans, Mellons, Warburgs, etc. Best taking funds from a specific ”bucket” of the numbers used in numbers and costs in the central of- regards. funds and using it for items other than and find that the Letters fice. Thank you for the opportunity to what those funds were earmarked for. numbers were clarify this matter. Robert Hargrave This should be looked into, because available on the to the Durham unless the gas tax goes into the General Department of Dr. George Litton Fund, it may be considered something Public Instruction Cleveland County Board of other good fiduary responsibility of web site. How- Editor Education To the editor, those funds. ever, we find that Cary has made the decision to place This state taxes, taxes. Consider those numbers are a sewage waste dump in the middle of this: In highway building where a gen- not correct and are misleading. To the editor, our community with no say from us eral contractor wins the bid and is paid The merger of the Cleveland Thank you, and the staff of the JLF and refuses to move it even 1,000 yards in ”tax dollars,” the products that the County Schools, Kings Mountain Dis- for the work your doing. I have found away from our churches and neighbors. contractors use is charged sales tax. trict Schools, and Shelby City Schools some sanity in this state when I thought So far we have been able to accomplish Hence the tax dollars that are being was made official on January 13, 2004. their was none. nothing except go into debt, complain used to build those roads do not go as Since that was the middle of the school David Powell and try to get them to listen. far because the products are taxed. The year, the merger was not actually ac- Goldsboro We do understand that the plant road tax is used to build roads, and in complished until July 1, 2004. The new is an acceptable use of eminent domain building those roads, it generates sales Cleveland County Schools (all three old but right downtown? tax that goes into the general fund. systems lost their identity) inherited all To the editor, Hence the road tax generates mon- of the administrators that were under There is no real free-market but it Richard Helman ies that can be used however they see fit. contract upon merger. would be nice if it were really true. As a New Hill, NC While making the roads more expensive Not a single central office admin- conservative of long standing one thing to build, the gas (road) tax generates istrator has been added since merger, has been learned and that there is no sales tax and that increases the ”crown though some personnel were reassigned more of ”free-market” in the real world To the editor, jewels” of Raliegh. due to reorganization. Since July 1, than a ”free-lunch”! Yes there is the mar- Considering that the state has 2004 we have reduced central office ket place but the majority of the players taken the gas tax and it was diverted Bryan White administration costs $528,344 through are the little people and the people who to fund other items in the state budget, Greensboro Is the Minimum Wage Really the Magic Wand Some Claim?

n 1914, Henry Ford paid his fac- situation. Today, those who advocate their families. for adults with 12 or fewer years of tory line employees $97.30 per a minimum wage argue from one or Since 1938 is ancient history to education — working, low-education day, in 2005 dollars. Ford actually several different perspectives, unre- many Americans, examples from the adults, the target population — ex- Ioffered a $5 daily wage in an attempt lated to the odiousness of a particular less- distant past may better serve to perienced the most severe decline. to cut enormous costs associated with kind of work. Practically all of these illustrate whether the minimum wage Young, unmarried high school males, high employee turnover, absenteeism, arguments are tied to some numerical is hitting its target audience. Santa Fe, however, entered the job market in recruitment, and retraining for the or statistical measurement. N.M. raised the city’s minimum wage large numbers after the wage increase, tedious assembly-line work in his auto The most popular reasons cited to $8.50 per hour in June 2004, and showing some employment substitu- plant. for a needed rise in the federal mini- again to $9.50 per hour Jan. 1, 2006. It tion between the two groups. The mum wage, offered at the state level will rise to $10.50 in 2007. North Carolina is on the brink minimum wage as well, are based on the cost of living. Lawmakers in Santa Fe cited of its own new experiment with a is currently an Because inflation erodes the purchas- Ford’s bold move as its inspiration, statewide minimum wage. Based issue in a num- ing power of a dollar, some advocates making the law applicable to private mostly on a pronounced need to link ber of states, argue that increases in the minimum businesses and nonprofits that employ minimum wage changes to the rate North Carolina wage should keep up with the annual more than 25 people, not just to mu- of inflation, there is ample evidence included, and rate of inflation. nicipal employees, as some other local both in theory and in practice to sug- at the national To begin to evaluate these initiatives have been structured. gest that productivity increases are level. Interest in claims, we should ask a few basic In 2000, nonwage benefits added the only way to raise wages without a new federal Karen questions, starting with the reasons about 18 percent to total worker com- sacrificing workers in the most vulner- Palasek minimum has for which minimum wages were en- pensation. At that rate, the total value able, and presumably the targeted, little to do with acted in the first place. If the original of the 2004 wage increase was about categories. Ford’s productivity argument, how- intent of minimum-wage law was not $10.37 per hour; the 2006 increase There is no legislative magic ever. to provide this level of financial sup- brought it to $11.59 per hour. Now the wand for prosperity. Instead, the mini- Overall labor productivity in the port, it is unreasonable to expect that first-round results are in, and they’re mum wage closes access to the market United States has risen rapidly since it should now do so. not good. to the workers who are least able to the 1970s, according to researchers, There is some historical debate Consider the “working poor” compete in any way other than wages. even though the 50-year trend shows over this point. The Fair Labor Stan- of Santa Fe. Based on studies follow- As Walter Williams notes, the mini- that U.S. labor productivity lagged dards Act of 1938 raised the minimum ing the initial 2004 increase, unem- mum wage is “maximum folly.” CJ behind the G-7 (now G-8) countries wage by 25 cents at a time when ployment in Santa Fe has risen by 16 before the 1970s. national unemployment was at 18 percent since enactment in June 2004. Ford’s minimum wage was percent, decreasing the likelihood Also, fewer hours are worked by those Dr. Karen Palasek is director of intended to ensure the loyalty of a that the lowest-productivity workers who are employed at the new wage. educational and academic programs for supply of workers in a distasteful job would have any income to support Most significantly, employment the John Locke Foundation. March 2006 C a r o l i n a 28 Parting Shot Journal Climate-Change Commission Finds Sky Is Actually Falling (a CJ parody)

By GRADY GREENPEACE presented other evidence that global its gorillas and chimpanzees. “They’re Environmental Correspondent warming is causing: not happy about it, I can tell you,” Rice- RALEIGH • More people — including Burroughs said. his quote, “Lions and tigers and children— to lose hair. Because the air • Beaches in North Carolina to bears, oh my!” may no longer just is warmer, the human body sheds un- close part of the year because the state’s be a silly line out of a script from necessary follicles. warmer waters are attracting huge T“The Wizard of Oz.” North Carolina • Shingles and siding on homes schools of sharks. The sharks are chasing environmentalists — and now state and other structures to thin. Akin to evo- sunfish, which normally don’t venture legislators — are taking Dorothy’s words lution in the biological world, members north of Florida, but have migrated to seriously. of the commission say, buildings adjust North Carolina, state biologist Jeter Granted, the change has been to change in temperature. Benchley testified. subtle. But evidence studied by North • Paint on automobiles and other • Even more hot air to be expelled Carolina’s new Legislative Commis- vehicles to thicken to protect themselves in the General Assembly than normal. sion on Global Climate Change shows against the stronger sunlight. Again, the Visitors to the legislature testified that that — without a doubt — THE SKY IS legislators attribute this to “structural they’ve noticed a gradual increase of FALLING! evolution.” Yes, the experts say, Chicken Little was right. bombast over the past few years — which It is falling because global warm- • Bears to become more bel- The sky (shown above) is really falling is filtering out of the Legislative Building ing has begun to melt molecules in ligerent because warmer weather has into the atmosphere and contributing to the atmosphere, which then descend shortened their hibernation period, “Our customers have stopped ordering environmental damage. upon earth. This can easily be proven depriving them of needed sleep. One greenhouses since your commission is Suzy Sierra, president of the Justice because many days — especially in witness before the commission, Daisy telling them there won’t be any need Center for Green People Everywhere, North Carolina, legislators say — it is Crockett, a professional bear-hunting because of the ‘greenhouse effect,’” Bo- said government warming is an out- difficult to see any Carolina Blue in the guide, said she has noticed that her prey nita Flowers, president of Greenhouses growth of the greenhouse effect. “A lot heavens. Scientists, weathermen, and has become much more ornery. “Them Forever, Inc., testified. of people have been offended personally even ordinary folk, used to call these b’ars just ain’t gittin’ enough shut-eye,” • Beavers in North Carolina are by what they’ve heard on the House and melted molecules rain, snow, sleet, fog she testified. “I’m afeared we’ll have to beginning to lose their teeth because the Senate floor. Especially the personal at- and other forms of water. But members start usin’ bazookas on ‘em instead of bark on trees is growing thinner. tacks on people of green color.” of the commission, which met for the rifles.” • Many animals at the North The commission is scheduled first time Feb. 3, assure citizens that the • The N.C. greenhouse-construc- Carolina Zoo are losing their hair. For to meet again in July. But because of sky itself is actually falling! tion industry to lobby against global- instance, zookeeper Tarzana Rice-Bur- the unbearable temperatures in North Reps. Joe Hackney and John Gar- warming legislation because fewer roughs told the commission that the zoo Carolina at that time, it is moving its rou, co-chairmen of the commission, horticulturists are building greenhouses. has had to purchase toupees for some of venue to Alaska. CJ

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