Thursday, May 30, 2013

A National Model for Shame

When I was a child, I told myself that I would be a better parent than my own. Maturity, experience and education allowed me the opportunity to learn about child development and thus improve my parenting skills. The aging process has also allowed me to recognize that my parents taught me valuable lessons in ethics, manners and a desire for social justice.

Republicans in the NC General Assembly refuse to see any value in the people and the policies of the Democrats who were in power before them. It was not all good. In my 20 years of lobbying, I observed some less-than-stellar Democratic moments. But, this is different.

I have read the phrase, "NC is a national model for..." countless times since the GOP takeover. The sentence usually ends with the news that the Republican majority is ending, defunding, repealing and/or closing whatever fills in the blank. Successful NC programs and policies that other states wish to replicate are daily being destroyed. Here are just a few examples:

1. Early childhood education (Smart Start)
2. Public financing for judicial races
3. Infant mortality reduction
4. Medicaid cost efficiency
5. Renowned public higher education system
6. The Teaching Fellows Program
7. Community college system
8. The Golden Leaf Foundation

Now, NC is a national model for ridicule and satire. How sad.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

No comments:

Post a Comment