Protesters disrupt school board meeting

  From Raleigh News And Observer

 

By Thomas Goldsmith - STAFF WRITER

A mid-meeting disruption that verged on a riot has erupted at tonight's Wake County school board meeting with a group of chanting protesters refusing to relinquish the microphone. A string of arrests by armed police has followed.
During what had been a relatively quiet meeting, speaker Carolyn Coleman began a loud complaint to the board about its policies on diversity, then brought more than two dozen protesters forward to join her in chants of "forward ever! backwards never!"
Young protesters David Eisenstandt, a familiar figure among the youth protesters, was one of the first arrested, as police took at least half a dozen into custody.

Board members have retreated into a private meeting after protesters ignored Chairman Ron Margiotta's threats of arrest.
Now remaining protesters are singing the civil rights anthem "We Shall Overcome."
Board member Keith Sutton at one point was in the midst of the fray, apparently trying to prevent excessive or rough handling of demonstrators. Sutton was briefly halted by police, but let go, observers said.
Earlier, Rev. William Barber, head of the state NAACP, and Rev. Nancy Petty, senior pastor at Pullen Memorial Baptist Church, were arrested by Raleigh police as they stepped onto the property of the Wake school board administration building, defying a school district letter barring them from the grounds.
Shortly after leading a downtown march and rally protesting the Wake school board majority's decision to ditch the district's long-standing diversity policy, Barber arrived at school administration headquarters on Wake Forest Road in Raleigh. Stepping out of an SUV around 2:45 p.m., Barber was met at the building entrance by Harold Lassiter, head of security for the school district, and several Raleigh police officers. With Petty by his side, Barber read aloud an open letter to school board chairman Ron Margiotta.
Lassiter asked whether Barber, who along with Petty, Duke University professor Tim Tyson and activist Mary D. Williams were arrested for disrupting a June 15 school board meeting, had prepared written assurances he wouldn't disrupt the afternoon school board meeting taking place inside the building as required by a school board letter banning the four from the property.
"No," Barber said. Officers then arrested Barber and Petty and led them away in plastic wrist restraints and transported to the Wake County jail.
Barber and Petty were charged with second-degree trespassing, said Jim Sughrue, Raleigh police spokesman. A protester was also arrested. Gregory Moss was charged with resisting, delaying or obstructing a law enforcement officer and was also transported to the Wake County jail.
Their arrest triggered shouting and chants from the more than 100 protesters gathered outside the building, many of them carrying signs equating the board majority's diversity decision with de facto resegregation of Wake schools and neighborhoods. More than 20 Raleigh police officers, some on horseback, were stationed around the crowd, backed up by a mobile command center. Paramedics pedaled on bicycles, on the lookout for protesters overcome by the high heat.
Inside the building, the school board started its monthly meeting with Margiotta's pledge not to create schools full of poor or minority children. They faced a packed house of both supporters and opponents.
Chairman Ron Margiotta just gave an opening statement maintaining that that the board would not be distracted by its detractors, presumably including this morning's downtown protesters and the pastors and others arrested minutes ago when trying to attend the meeting, from which they had been barred.
Margiotta heads a coalition determined to end the Wake schools' longstanding emphasis on maintaining balanced schools based on students economic background.
"This board does not intend to create high-poverty or low-performing schools in the new zone assignments.
The board has a full agenda of items, including addressing projected elementary school overcrowding and preparing a job description for a new superintendent.
Earlier today, Wake County school board chair Ron Margiotta proposed generally limiting school board meetings to one per month, instead of the customary two, with one or two work sessions each month.
In addition, Margiotta suggested the elimination of the board's standing committees, saying that having items discussed in committees, at work sessions and at public meetings led to repetition. Some members said the approach would not allow time for adequate consideration of items before they had to be voted on.
"Let's try it and see how it works," Margiotta said, suggesting that the proposal could be tried for three or four months as a test.
Later he added, "The intention was to try to streamline our process."
A resolution calling for the change on a trial basis will be heard at the meeting today.
Items could be introduced through members designated as liaisons in particular areas, or directly to the chair, he said.
Training sessions could be incorporated into some work sessions. State law calls for school boards to meet on the first Tuesday of each month.
Margiotta, who introduced the proposal at a committee of the whole meeting that is in progress, had suggested last month that he would have substantive changes to suggest in the board's meeting structure.
"I don't see how board members could be up to speed on all the items we work on," member Kevin Hill said. "I am beginning to get frustrated with making decisions with 12 minutes to think about it."
Ad hoc committees, like the one formed to search for a new superintendent, would continue to operate, Margiotta said.

thomas.goldsmith@newsobserver.com or 919-829-8929

The World In Which We All Grew Up

From The Pilot

By Dusty Rhoades - Sunday, July 18, 2010
Recently, House Minority Leader John Boehner gave an interview to The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review in which he - surprise! - criticized Congressional Democrats and Congress.
It was a wide-ranging interview covering subjects like the financial reform bill, which Boehner compared to "killing an ant with a nuclear weapon." (I'm sure people adversely affected by the financial meltdown will be glad to know that the crisis was only an "ant" as far as the Republican leadership is concerned.)
As usual, Boehner trotted out one of the catchphrases of the American right: a professed yearning for, as he put it, "the America he grew up in," which he claims is being "snuffed out" by those awful Democrats.
Well, according to Brother John's Wikipedia page, he was born in 1949. So the "America he grew up in" saw the Red Scares, the polio epidemics, the Korean War, McCarthyism, the Berlin Wall and the hydrogen bomb. It also was the era in which the Vietnam War began, although no one really paid much attention at the time. Oh, and let's not forget the overarching and ever-present dread of a nuclear war that would wipe out civilization (fallout shelters, anyone?)
It should also be noted that America wasn't exactly congenial if you were black, brown, gay or disabled, and was pretty doggone restrictive if you were female. If you were an abused child, your plight was more likely than not to be ignored or hushed up.
I joined up with America in 1962. The America I grew up in saw the aforementioned Vietnam War in full bloody flower, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Bobby Kennedy and Malcolm X, race riots, anti-war riots, the 1968 Chicago "police riot," hippies, Yippies, an exploding drug culture, Nixon, Watergate, Charles Manson, an OPEC embargo which led to a gas crisis, an economic crisis, a hostage crisis, "malaise," a major city going broke, Chrysler going broke (and having to be bailed out), polyester leisure suits, disco, and a limited selection of weak, lousy beer that we only drank because we didn't know that there was anything better.
Oh, and there was still that fear that we were going to start swapping nukes with the Russians and wipe out all life on the planet. Consider this, though: The America Brother John and I grew up in also gave us the vaccine that eradicated polio, the GI Bill, the Marshall Plan, the Interstate highway system, Elvis, Chuck Berry, the Civil Rights Act, the Clean Air Act, the Ford Mustang, moon landings, communications satellites, weather satellites, the transistor, the microchip, the MRI ... the list of advancements, societal and scientific, goes on and on.
And now? There are still environmental dangers like the Gulf oil spill, but on average, the country's air and water are measurably cleaner than they used to be. We are able, if we have the will, to give everyone in the country instant access to more information than our ancestors ever dreamed of.
We still have our differences with the Russians, but we don't live in fear that we're going to blow each other off the face of the Earth. We still fear attack, but it's not a world-ending one. Things are not perfect, but they're certainly better, for children, women, minorities, gays and the disabled. And the beer selection is excellent.
The America I grew up in is like the one John Boehner grew up in, the one my children grew up in, and the one that every American child born while you read this column is going to grow up in. It's a place of fear, violence, chaos and injustice. It's a place of hope, kindness, creativity and progress. It's always, as Dickens put it, the best of times and the worst of times.
What America is always doing, though, is moving forward. That progress may be slow, or it moves in fits and starts. That can be frustrating. But there's no going back, Mr. Boehner. The America we grew up in is gone, and it's not coming back. A new one is being made every day on its foundations, just like every day since the country was founded. You can slow that down, but you can't stop it.
Dusty Rhoades lives, writes and practices law in Carthage. Contact him at dustyr@nc.rr.com.

NAACP July 20th March 4 our Children and against resegregation

Submitted by Tara on Mon, 07/12/2010 - 10:28.

FOR OUR CHILDREN:
We Say NO to resegregation!
We Say YES to socio-economic diversity and school excellence!
· Stop segregation and promote diversity
· Secure equity in funding
· Hire and retain high quality teachers
· Have smaller class sizes
· Focus on math, science, history and reading
· Promote parent and community involvement
· Eliminate inequities in suspensions, graduation rates, performance and other factors
Fighting for our children,
not just ourselves
Our community is at stake.
It’s time to make a statement – join us for a mass mobilization against the student reassignment plan of the anti-diversity caucus of the Wake County Board of Education that will eliminate our nationally recognized socio-economic diversity policy and take us backwards.
March FOR Our Children and AGAINST Resegregation
Tuesday, July 20 at 10 a.m.
Meet at the Convention Center to march to the Capitol. Rain or shine.

The Follies

From NC Policy Watch

By Chris Fitzsimon
Debunking the high-tax rhetoric one more time
It's always interesting to note when a national study or report names North Carolina one of the best places in the country to do business.
The Governor's office sends out a press release, a few media outlets mention it briefly and the next day the anti-government crowd resumes making their ridiculous claims that state tax and regulatory policies make it virtually impossible for companies to operate here.
They almost always include the talking point that North Carolina taxes are the highest in the Southeast (they're not by the way) and that the state is losing jobs to its neighbors because it's so hostile to business and free enterprise.
That was the script again this week as CNBC released its annual ranking of the top states in the country for business. North Carolina was 4th, and made the biggest jump in the rankings from the previous year.  The results are worth looking at in a little more detail.
One of the criteria was the cost of doing business, which included taxes, utility costs, workers; compensation insurance, etc.   North Carolina ranked 15th in that category, but ahead of southern states like Georgia, Louisiana, Virginia, even Texas, the top-ranked state overall.
The cost of doing business in North Carolina is lower than it is in Texas. That's not something we hear very often during the debate in the General Assembly about taxes or regulation. Or on the campaign trail.
Empty your wallet scratch-off game
The North Carolina Exploitation Lottery unveiled three new games this week, always a reason to celebrate. One of them is an instant scratch-off game appropriately named "Break the Bank."
It does bring to mind a lot of other ideas for instant scratch-off games, "empty your wallet," "waste your savings,"  "throwaway your kids college education," or "take a chance with grocery money."
The possibilities are endless once you decide to fund education by convincing people to buy lottery tickets.
The UNC PAC is reloading
Here's another interesting note from the campaign finance reports that were filed this week by candidates for state office and political action committees. Citizens for Higher Education, the PAC funded by wealthy supporters of UNC-Chapel Hill has just under $180,000 in the bank and that's after already contributing $58,000 to legislators campaigns this election cycle.
The PAC handed out $479,000 to legislators' campaigns in the 2008 elections, so plenty more cash is likely on the way to campaign coffers from the well-heeled UNCers.
This legislative session, lawmakers finally repealed the provision that let out-of-state athletes pay in-state tuition, which has been a $10 million windfall for the athletic booster clubs that pay for athletic scholarships.
The PAC continues to employ two lobbyists to patrol the legislative halls on its behalf, even though UNC-Chapel Hill has its own lobbyist and the university's interests are also represented by the folks from the university system who work with legislators on a daily basis.
The booster club subsidy is gone for now thank goodness, but it's hard to rest when the fatcats who support it are still throwing their money around.
From the Fringe
There's plenty to choose from for this week's From the Fringe. Angry Locker Jon Ham is still seeing a liberal media conspiracy behind every tree.
Ham was upset that a national story carried in the News & Observer about the NAACP's resolution about the tea party movement incorrectly capitalized the word democratic in a quote by a tea party official.
The N&O reported the statement this way. "There's no room for that kind of vitriolic language in a civilized Democratic society," Shelton said.
Democratic little d is the correct usage.
Sloppy copy editing you might think?  Ham is sure there's much more to it, either the reporter intentionally used the capital D, or more likely used it by accident which Ham thinks would be far worse, because it reveals a "deep and unconscious bias."
Maybe he could help crack the code behind the common misuse of the word Capitol, which only refers to a building, not a city.
It all seems to add up to a covert plot to overthrow the government through carefully and diabolically placed grammatical errors. Be on the lookout. You have been warned.
Ham's not the only one on the Right breathlessly hyperbolic this week. The Locker's Asheville ranter uses this headline to criticize a story in the Hendersonville paper about Congressman Health Shuler's position on legislation allowing public employees to collectively bargain.
"Mollycoddled Weasel Words to Bring Down a Nation."   Letting firefighters collectively bargain would destroy America? Who knew?
The fear-mongering even finds its way into the Lockers event announcements. One for something called a citizen's constitutional workshop proclaims that "the past 100 years of Progressive Ideology have almost destroyed the US Constitution."
We are hanging by a thread ladies and gentleman.  Our nation is at risk. Make sure all your subjects and verbs agree and please, please, don't make any mistakes in Capitalization capitalization.

Senator Hagan solidly behind caps on emissions

From Blue NC

Submitted by scharrison on Sat, 07/17/2010 - 10:54am

• cap and trade
• Senator Kay Hagan
• U.S. Senate

• [View]

Adding her signature to a letter sent to the leader of the Senate:

“We believe the scale of this challenge dictates the need for a comprehensive solution that includes making polluters pay through a price on greenhouse gas emissions,” wrote Sens. Mark Begich of Alaska, Michael Bennet of Colorado, Roland Burris of Illinois, Al Franken of Minnesota, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Kay Hagan of North Carolina, Ted Kaufmann of Delaware, Jeff Merkley of Oregon, Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Mark Udall of Colorado, Tom Udall of New Mexico and Mark Warner of Virginia.

And I believe you're right.

Report: School Districts’ Perspectives on the Economic Stimulus Package

From NC Policy Watch

Friday, July 16th, 2010

By Staff
Teaching Jobs Saved in 2009-10 But Teacher Layoffs Loom for Next School Year

While nearly two-thirds of all school districts have used the federal stimulus money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) to save or create teaching jobs in the 2009-10 school year, as many as three-quarters of the nation's school districts expect to cut teaching jobs in 2010-11 due to budget decreases, according to a new survey of districts released this week by the Center on Education Policy (CEP).

The report, based on a nationally representative sample of district-level administrators surveyed in the spring of 2010, finds that nearly 95 percent of the nation's school districts have received or been promised funding from the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund (SFSF) authorized by ARRA. However, districts with funding declines are likely to face serious problems in the coming school year because much of the federal stabilization funding they have received has already been spent. An estimated 68 percent of school districts expect their total budgets, excluding ARRA funds, to decrease for school year 2010-11. As a result, 75 percent of districts that received SFSF funds expect to lay off teachers in 2010-11 to address their persistent budget shortfall.

SFSF funds helped to stabilize local budgets in 2009-10, though they were often insufficient to compensate for budget decreases not covered by the federal stimulus money. The report also finds that even with the ARRA funds, about 45 percent of districts with SFSF grants had to cut teaching staff in the 2009-10 school year.

"Unless additional recovery money is provided, the education jobs crisis that had been averted to some extent this year may emerge in full force in the coming school year, creating unprecedented shortages of classroom teachers that could undermine progress in school reform," said Jack Jennings, CEP's president and CEO.

CEP asked districts about actions they were undertaking to implement ARRA's four reform areas. CEP found that districts focused more aggressively on reform goals relating to improving teacher quality, bolstering standards and improving assessments, and participating in state longitudinal data systems than on improving low-performing schools. CEP suggests that this may be because districts have focused heavily on aligning their education reforms with state priorities and because not all districts have low-performing schools.

The majority of school districts have received or have been promised supplemental funding through ARRA for Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). More than half of districts receiving this funding are using the money to save or create jobs, as well as to purchase materials, technology, and equipment.

You can access the full report, at CEP's web site.

Based in Washington, D.C., the Center on Education Policy is a national, independent advocate for public education and for more effective public schools. The Center works to help Americans better understand the role of public education in a democracy and the need to improve the academic quality of public schools.

White House: Stimulus created nearly 1 million jobs in South

This week, President Obama's Council of Economic Advisers released [pdf] their latest quarterly report about jobs flowing from the spring 2009 stimulus bill.

According to the White House figures, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has saved or created just over 3 million jobs -- including nearly 1 million in 13 Southern states.

The estimates -- especially for the number of jobs potentially "saved" thanks to the stimulus bill's impact on the overall economy -- involve modeling that is far from an exact science, although the report does take pains to cite a variety of government and independent sources to confirm its conclusions.

Based on their data, here's a chart with the state-by-state numbers:



The Southern numbers are especially notable given the political battles over the stimulus last year. The government's data show that some of the biggest job gains came in states led by governors who vocally opposed the stimulus bill:

* In Texas, Gov. Rick Perry (R) initially rejected $555 million in stimulus money for unemployment benefits (although later changed his mind) and even suggested Texas might have to secede from the United States. The White House estimated 225,000 jobs were created or saved in Texas, second only to California.

* South Carolina's embattled Gov. Mark Sanford (R) vocally opposed the ARRA and likened accepting stimulus money to "fiscal child abuse." The Obama team says it can take credit for 41,000 jobs in that state.

* In Louisiana, Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) savaged a "stimulus bill that has not stimulated" (although, less than a day after that, he did a photo op celebrating a stimulus-funded project). The government credits the stimulus bill with creating 39,000 jobs in Louisiana.

* Mississippi's Gov. Haley Barbour (R) was a staunch opponent of the stimulus, and suggested on Fox News this year that it's only created government jobs. The Mississippi stimulus impact: 26,000 jobs.

* This week, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) said it's "hard to say" how much impact the stimulus has had in his state, allowing it may be responsible for up to 14,000 of the 72,000 jobs created on his watch this year. The White House estimates 73,000 jobs from the stimulus overall.

Of course, these numbers don't even count a big source of Southern job stimulus this summer: the 2010 Census, which just last month was employing over 100,000 people in 11 Southern states.

Who says the South doesn't need government jobs programs?

By Chris Kromm on July 16, 2010 11:22 AM