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The assault on education : A key strategy in the right’s effort to remake North Carolina

The assault on education : A key strategy in the right’s effort to remake North Carolina. Rob Schofield, NC Policy Watch for the UNC Faculty Assembly January 20, 2012. Who am I? What am I doing here?.

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The assault on education : A key strategy in the right’s effort to remake North Carolina

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  1. The assault on education: A key strategy in the right’s effort to remake North Carolina Rob Schofield, NC Policy Watch for the UNC Faculty Assembly January 20, 2012

  2. Who am I? What am I doing here? Rob Schofield – Policy Director at NC Policy Watch, lawyer, lobbyist, writer, troublemaker for 25 years NC Policy Watch – • State’s leading and most prolific progressive “think tank” • Free media outlet for progressives • www.ncpolicywatch.com

  3. Policy Watch – Top priorities Answering/exposing the right Energizing the state’s progressive movement Dramatically increasing the quantity and distribution of progressive messages Winning the propaganda war (aka “the battle of ideas”) Transforming state policymaking

  4. The 2011 session • The worst legislative session in decades • A determined and sustained assault on public structures and solutions that featured: • A slash and burn budget • Tax cuts at the worst possible time • Dozens of regressive substantive policy changes

  5. A Nixon era budget Effectively cutting taxes (sales, income corporate) $500 million in cuts to health care for the poor (Medicaid “optional” services) Firing thousands of educators Wrecking Smart Start and More at Four Damaging higher education Decimating the courts, public defenders, the environment, etc…

  6. Repealing the 20th Century Unemployment Insurance hostage crisis Anti-choice – so-called “Women’s right to know” law Election restrictions (voter ID, campaign finance, early voting) Small loans – 90% interest rates Charter schools, school vouchers Restricting community college student loans

  7. More… Eviscerating DENR and rulemaking So-called tort reform Repealing the Racial Justice Act Concealed weapons in parks and restaurants The marriage discrimination amendment The midnight assault on teachers And much more…

  8. The assault on education Huge and painful cuts to early childhood, K-12 and higher education Rapid, unregulated expansion of charter schools Community college loan access limited UNC cut by $444 million (15+%) Fewer and larger classes Teachers’ lobby in the crosshairs Large new UNC tuition hikes

  9. The right’s extreme agenda Undercut and erode support for all things “public” Privatize core government services or make them “fee for service” More sticks, fewer carrots Promote/expand corporate personhood Promote markets as an end rather than as merely a means of generating prosperity Redefine “freedom”

  10. The progressive alternative Healthy, well-funded public structures and services Tax modernization and reform Preserve and expand free/affordable public education Voter-owned elections Make the market economy a tool rather than an object of worship

  11. Where are we now? A full-time, part-time legislature (multiple special sessions) No holds barred An all-out public relations war coordinated with the right-wing think tanks The Pope Empire

  12. Thom Tillis unplugged “What we have to do is find a way to divide and conquer the people who are on assistance. We have to show respect for that woman who has cerebral palsy and had no choice in her condition that needs help and we should help. And we need to get those folks to look down at these people who choose to get into a condition that makes them dependent on the government.”

  13. What happens next? More of the same Redistricting lawsuits Marriage discrimination campaign The 2012 campaign (May and November) The short session The convention in Charlotte The election

  14. And the long term? Battle continues North Carolina a fast-growing “purple” state A flood of corporate money Redistricting decision critical 2012 election critical More voices needed

  15. Keeping up Good news and bad news • Bad: • Mainstream news media has been shrinking • Capital press corps tiny in comparison to past • Less light on the process in many ways • Good: • Alternatives are springing up • Messy – can feel like a fire hose of info • NC Policy Watch , Budget & Tax Center critical tools

  16. Questions? Comments? Rob Schofield NC Policy Watch P.O. Box 28068 Raleigh, NC 27611 919-861-2065 rob@ncpolicywatch.com

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