Lesson #1 – Democracy

This calendar year the North Carolina General Assembly concluded its extended long session without passing a budget. Why? Because the GOP stalwarts in the Senate never had the guts to call a vote to override Gov. Cooper’s veto of the budget proposed months ago.

That cowardice has everything to do with knowing that a veto override could not be sustained as the votes were not there. Even when every senator in the NCGA Senate was present, leadership would not call the vote.

So much for democracy.

Lesson #2 – Fiscal Responsibility

As schools are struggling to ascertain how to offer a new required personal finance course for all high school students without sacrificing other core courses, the need for actual fiscal responsibility seems to reside more in the NCGA than anywhere else.

A course that is supposed to teach students about debt, credit, budgeting, student loans, mortgages, and other fiscal responsibilities will probably never explain the absolute disparities of income inequality that grips this state.

NC supposedly has a gigantic budget surplus, but our schools are underfunded and 20% of our public school students live at or below the poverty level.

And the hypocrisy of lawmakers concerning finances screams fairly loudly as well.

Lesson #3 – Special Interests

The next two tweets (one from a reporter at The Daily Tar Heel and one from a UNC law professor) tell the absolute hypocrisy of catering toward special interests.

 

Imagine how many teacher assistants could be funded with $2.5 million dollars.

Lesson #4 – Celebrating America’s “Melting Pot” & Freedom of Religion

Dan Forest has served as Lt. Gov. for the past eight years and is the presumptive republican nominee for the governor’s race in 2020. He said the following last July at a church service.

“No other nation, my friends, has ever survived the diversity and multiculturalism that America faces today, because of a lack of assimilation, because of this division, and because of this identity politics. But no other nation has ever been founded on the principles of Jesus Christ, that begin the redemption and reconciliation through the atoning blood of our savior.” 

And as recently as November 25th, Forest made the claim that tens of thousands of immigrants had attacked kids in the state of North Carolina.

All of these lessons come complimentary from the same body of lawmakers who govern the very funding of our public schools.