Rep. Tricia Cotham ran for office as a Democrat and was elected as a Democrat. She had previously been Teacher-of-the-Year and claimed to be a strong advocate for the state’s beleaguered public schools. She switched her party and joined the Republicans, giving them the one vote they needed to have a supermajority in both houses. Republicans can now override Democratic Governor Roy Cooper’s vetos.
The NC General Assembly has been consistently hostile to public schools and to teachers. They have authorized charter schools, including for-profit schools, and vouchers. Many financial scandals have marked the charter sector.
Yet Rep. Cotham just voted to give the Republican-dominated General Assembly contro of charters. No critics or skeptics allowed!
Former Democratic lawmaker Tricia Cotham sealed her move to the Republican Party this week by co-sponsoring a bill that would remove the State Board of Education from the charter school approval process.
Under House Bill 618, that approval would be handed over to a new Charter School Review Board, whose members must be “charter school advocates in North Carolina.”
The new review board would replace the Charter School Advisory Board.
Most members of the new review board would be chosen by the General Assembly, which is currently led by state Republicans. The review board’s membership would include the State Superintendent of Public Instruction or a designee, four members appointed by the House, four by the Senate and two members appointed by the state board.
Open the link to read more.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I left North Carolina in 2012 and even then there were questions about Cotham’s motivations. The Tar Heel State’s version of Krysten Sinema. What makes this even more deplorable, is that Cotham’s district is progressive, not just Democrat. She made all sorts of progressive promises during her election. The voters are justifiably angry. I don’t mean to sound conspiratorial, but given the ends justifying the means governance of the Republican Party in North Carolina I think we should follow the money.
Good suggestion. YES, indeed, “Follow the money.”
So sad and sick.
When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time” — Maya Angelou
Agreed!!!!
!!!!!
Just in: Elon Musk announces he will produce his own chatbot — TrumpGPT — which won’t ever threaten humanity because it will be too stupid to do so.
Pretty much the same was said about the Idiot before he occupied the White House. Stupidity is a hot commodity in the U.S., easy to spread, impossible to clean up.
Sorry, I feel compelled to go — sort of — off topic. On the other side of the country from North Carolina where my sister teaches and is badly oppressed, UTLA just won a huge victory today and secured a brighter future for all of Los Angeles and California. Collective action works. I’m so proud of and pleased with my strong teachers union! May all districts across the land have unions and organize to save public schools from the attacks of those who wish to destroy us an impoverish the working class and our country! U! T! L! A!
Great news!
Collectivism does work, if workers remain united. The working class must realize that they need to remember MLK’s collective efforts for change. The only way the working class will get a change in this country is to protest and force the hand of politicians. Representatives make empty promises during elections. If the working poor want to raise the minimum wage and increase taxes on the wealthy, they are going to have to protest. The politicians work for the oligarchs, not the people.
On the other side of the Country is the not exactly right wing City of LA. So yes collective action works there. The Unionization rate in NC is 2.8% stupidity seems to be genetic.
The question is why in States like NY, Public School Teachers across the State that has a 20.7% Unionization rate. (Far higher than that for Public Sector Workers and almost 100% of Public School Teachers) in that State they do not use their collective power to drive social change. Including the issue of Charter Schools . That may sadly be an over 100 year old problem of the American Union movement described by Jack London in “The Iron Heel” in 1906 where (Business Unionism ) Unions were and are all to willing to sell out other Unions and workers, cutting deals with Oligarchs large and small for the benefit of their own. At the time London was describing the AFL (skilled?) Trade Unions vs the IWW.
Teachers in NYC see Charters as a threat but perhaps not an immediate threat, to their own employment. While in the suburbs there is little or no threat. The fact that Charters are a disservice to the majority of students who are in Public Schools or that have been tossed back to the Public School system is not even on the radar of the average Teacher . If it was there would be collective action to end it.
The lack of collective action is the road to hell for all Union workers. “By the time they come for you there will be no one left to say anything”
When I began to teach in North Carolina in 1982 I could not afford the dues to join the NEA on my salary. I was told that although NC was a right to work state membership would provide legal protection. Under duress from my district in Alabama thirty seven years later, I was able to afford the dues, yet the NEA wouldn’t answer my calls and I found that the district rep took my confidential conversation and shared some of it with the superintendent. My concern with the national unions is that they have not demonstrated the dexterity or shown the desire to work around “right to work” statutes to protect teachers and school administrators who feel left alone to deal with red state autocracy. I admire the resilience of union states, but we in the other states need support. Membership in what we call “professional organizations” has brought little relief. The national organizations have ignored the ability of state and district policy makers to neuter union voices through actions like housing teacher organizations in district offices. We need a national plan to support all teachers even within the confines of “right to work.” It could be done through a commitment of the
NEA and AFT to get rid of turf concerns and pool resources for the good of all.
There is some good and some bad in Indiana’s proposed budget.
[The Times] Senate approves two-year Indiana budget plan
Indiana’s biennial budget battle is about to begin in earnest.
The Republican-controlled Senate voted 40-10 Tuesday to approve its vision for spending some $43.3 billion in state resources over the next two years — setting up an end-of-session showdown with the Republican-controlled House and Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb.
The parameters of the budget clash will be determined Wednesday when the State Budget Committee gets an updated forecast of Indiana’s anticipated tax revenue for the next 26 months…
Education funding is poised to be a key sticking point in the negotiations even though the Senate and the House each allocated about half of the state’s General Fund spending for elementary, middle and high school education (K-12).
For example, the Senate spending plan calls for a $1.1 billion total increase to student tuition support, compared to the $1.6 billion proposed by the House.
The Senate budget also deletes a House-approved expansion of private school voucher eligibility, fully implements the governor’s call to eliminate student textbook fees, and gives charter schools access to local property tax revenue for the first time in state history.
Other education-related provisions in the Senate budget include $240 million more for special education over the two-year period, $100 million for learning-loss recovery, a $95 million complexity funding increase for schools with students from low-income families, nearly $25 million a year for school safety grants, and additional money for early childhood education and literacy programs…
https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/senate-approves-two-year-indiana-budget-plan/article_25bae211-fa92-517e-a7ce-0167fe158db1.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=email&utm_campaign=user-share
If cauterize means to close in order to heal, for example as with wounds or surgery, I suggest a new word for the lexicon:
cothamize – to tear open wounds and ensure infections persist and remain destructive and deadly.