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Opinion: Striving to Use the Full Capacity (9/6/2008)
by Chad Adams
I love techno gadgets. Cell phones, iPods, surround-sound systems, laptops, even the integration of technology in my car. It is all fascinating. Ironically, most of us rarely use such technology to its full capacity. We use our microwaves to reheat things or pop popcorn. We use our cell phones to call and text, and we use our computers to check e-mail, cruise the net and write. We rarely program our microwaves to cook a meal two hours before we get home. We don't synch up our cell phones to our computers with scheduling reminders. And many folks even struggle to set up their DVR to record their favorite shows.Much the same often happens in local government, where we have stellar programs and areas of interest that are rarely fully utilized by the public. If a county or city government wishes to hold spending down, it should spend some time examining how efficient and effective it is in all areas. Furthermore, it should spend ...
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Opinion: The Bipartisan Success of Welfare Reform (9/6/2008)
by John Hood
 For the most part, the just-completed Democratic and Republican national conventions presented profound policy differences to American voters, on issues ranging from taxes and Iraq to education and abortion. I found it interesting, however, that several prominent speakers in both Denver and St. Paul harkened back to the welfare reform of the 1990s as a symbol of successful government reform. The story fits the bill in several ways. Welfare reform got its start in the states, not in Washington
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Opinion: What The New Econ Stats Tell Us (9/2/2008)
by John Hood
Responding to new data this week from the U.S. Census Bureau on income, poverty, and health insurance, some politicians and commentators noted that North Carolina posted improvements but still had far to go to reach the national average. That’s mostly true, and worth chewing on a moment, but later I’ll suggest that there’s an even more-important message in the new statistics. A troubling characteristic of North Carolina’s political culture is what I like to call the “Blarney Tradition.” Over the past century, our leaders have shown themselves to be excellent marketers. But they haven’t been as skilled at delivering the g...
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Opinion: Time to Leave This Law Behind (9/2/2008)
by Kristen Blair
Despite an auspicious beginning, the federal No Child Left Behind Act has become the law everyone loves to hate. Hailed early on as a powerful way to eradicate troubling achievement gaps, the law's noble goals unified legislators on both sides of the aisle. The day NCLB was signed, White House officials described it as "the most sweeping reform of federal education policy in a generation."That was in 2002. Six years later, the law is a bipartisan punching bag. Conservatives abhor its massive federal intrusion. Liberals decry its emphasis on high-stakes testing. Public support for NCLB has ebbed as well because of the law's inflexible mandates and implementation problems.According to a poll released in August by Education Next and Harvard University's Program on Education Policy and Governance, more than half of Americans want an extreme education makeover: 27 percent say Congress should renew NCLB with "major c...
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Opinion: Reviewing the Gubernatorial Debate (8/22/2008)
by John Hood
Bev Perdue needed a ladder. Instead, she brought a shovel. Having dug herself deeply into a political hole over the past couple of weeks on the issue of offshore drilling for oil and natural gas, Perdue came into the August 19 TV debate with Pat McCrory needing to offer a more coherent position. She needed to explain how she could go from being “100 percent opposed” to drilling off the North Carolina coast last month to being, well, for drilling this month if Congress and a governmental panel say it’s okay – maybe. And she needed to perform better than in her first TV debate with McCrory back in June. During the hourlong...
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Opinion: Public schools -- Even when they win they lose (8/22/2008)
by Elaine Mejia
A Wake County superior court judge recently issued a ruling in a ten year-old lawsuit against state government brought by several of North Carolina’s local school districts. The lawsuit alleged that the state constitution requires that the state’s public schools receive the revenue from all public “fines and forfeitures.” Revenue from criminal fines has always been given over to public schools. The issue at hand is whether or not civil fines should also be turned over to the schools. These are fines such as those levied against operators of overweight trucks travelling the state’s highways or penalties paid by residents who owe back taxes. In 2005 the state Supreme Court determined that the schools are owed this revenue and this latest superior court ruling upholds that finding and specifies the amount owed.
So, how much money is...
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Opinion: Letting Freedom Work Its Magic (8/22/2008)
by Joseph Coletti
Education and health care consistently rank among the top concerns for North Carolinians and Americans in public opinion surveys. Expressed desires include better results, higher pay for teachers, lower prices in health care, more choice in schools or doctors, and more convenience. In health care the comparisons are with Europe; in education, with Asia.The standard line is that we can accomplish our objectives with a more active role for government. Europeans, after all, spend half as much on health care with no worse health. From Japan to Korea, Southeast Asia a decade ago to China and India today, the ever-incipient threat from Asian engineers and scientists has been attributed to better educational systems for more than 40 years.Strangely, nobody has worried about the lack of government involvement in religion, in the media, in fast-food restaurants, or fad diets limiting choice or quality. In fact, the concern in ...
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