Charter School Bill proves Republicans can't compromise with Democrats | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: My thanks to the Beaufort Observer for doing the work to bring this to us.

    Commentary on the News

    The Republican-controlled Legislature has been debating allowing more public charter schools in the state. The number of charter schools now is limited to 100 and there are thousands of parents who have their children on waiting lists to enroll in charter schools. Allowing more charters was one of the key objectives listed by the new Republican leadership in the Legislature.

    So shortly after the session began SB 8 was introduced. At that point the Teachers' Union (N. C. Association of Educators) announced that it would not oppose increasing the number of charter schools. That maneuver was a trick.

    It was deceptive because the NCAE and the Education Establishment knew that it could do what it has been doing ever since charter schools were allowed in the state--obfuscate the process with regulatory restraint from the State Board of Education. One of those areas has been how the money which was supposed to go to charter schools was distributed. After two appellant court cases in which the anti-charter school establishment lost, they shifted strategies to focus on adding regulatory conditions on charters...the exact reason charter schools were/are created in the first place - to get them out from under burdensome bureaucratic controls.

    If you want an example of this obfuscation-by-regulation charade the State Board has been playing, just talk to anyone in the movement to get Bear Grass school chartered.

    So when some in the Senate Education Committee realized the subterfuge that was being played on them, they offered a revised bill which came to be known as a "committee substitute" and which eventually passed in the Senate.

    Essentially what it did was create a "special commission" to administer the charter schools in the state. That's when the 'fat hit the fan.' Democrats, at the behest of the Education Establishment, went crazy. We sat in on some of the hearings and you would have thought we were going to bulldoze most of the public schools in the state.

    Sara Burrows, Associate Editor, of the Carolina Journals has done the best job we've seen in summarizing the debate. You can read it here.

    What Sara's story shows is the fallacy of compromise in the legislative process.

    Republicans wanted more charter schools. Charter schools, by definition, have less bureaucratic controls on them. That is a prime reason for them to exist. Democrats, on the other hand, favor the Elitist Approach to educational governance: Big shots tell parents what is best for them. Self-appointed Big Shots in most cases. That's why they oppose anything resembling "parental choice" in education.

    Republicans tried to compromise with them by, as Sara shows, conceding most of the things Democrats complained about. But still the Democrats do not support the bill. Because of that we would predict either one of two things will happen: The Governor will veto the bill and the House will sustain her veto or the bill will be so watered down/cluttered up that it will not accomplish the original purpose.

    The Republicans need to learn that they either need to stand on principle (more parental choice in education) or just throw in the towel. We would suggest that the only way Republicans can win is to stand on principle. Otherwise they lose either way: The bill is killed or it is so diluted as to be worthless.

    We think they should pass the original "committee substitute" and if Perdue vetoes it and the Democrats uphold it, then let the people decide in 2012 how it's going to be.

    Beaufort's represenative in the House, Bill Cook, supports more choice for parents. Beaufort's senator, Stan White, is solidly in the Democrat opposition to the bill.

    Bill Cook's email is: Bill.Cook@ncleg.net

    Stan White's email is: Stan.White@ncleg.net