Republican leaders are starving NC schools. You can see the impact in Alamance County. | Opinion
Starving schools
After finding mold issues in 21 of its schools the Alamance County School Board has delayed the start of the school year until Sept. 5. It would be easy to blame the school board or school system staff, but that would be a mistake. The Alamance-Burlington School System has been slowly starved of funds for years by a Republican-majority board of county commissioners and the Republican supermajority in Raleigh.
The effect of this failure of leadership is that schools can’t afford to do basic maintenance of existing buildings and infrastructure. This intentional, strategic disinvestment is the result of the Republican obsession with low taxes and a disdain for public schools. Don’t be surprised if elected Republicans point to this disaster of their own creation as yet another excuse to fund “school choice” alternatives.
Matthew Teal, Mebane
Nanny state laws
The Republican leadership in the N.C. General Assembly feels empowered to take control of our private decisions. The so-called Parents’ Bill of Rights, Fairness in Sports Act, Choose Your School, Choose Your Future Act, and Election Day Integrity Act all masquerade behind names that suggest they are enacted in our best interests, to protect us from someone taking away our right to make our own decisions. In truth, these laws foster the real nanny state because they make decisions for us. The real intent of these laws is consolidating power, as the bill that transfers power from the governor to the General Assembly (SB 512) makes clear. Don’t let them take away our voice, our freedoms, our right to vote for elected officials who will truly represent us.
Sondra Stein, Durham
Power outages
The brief but intense storm that hit Durham Aug. 15 left more than 50,000 people without power, many for more than two days. The damage was not limited to the trees that fell. Utility customers also suffered damage from loss of power service. There should be compensation from the utility, and not just the reduced bill because of reduced service. I suggest a required rebate to each customer for each hour of absent service.
That might persuade the electric utilities to put their distribution lines underground, where they belong and where they are in most advanced countries. Besides their fragility, overhead lines are dangerous to humans and animals, can spark wildfires, and are extremely ugly. It’s long past time for the regulatory agencies to demand action on behalf of the public.
Lawrence Evans, Durham
GOP debate
The writer is a former state senator.
As a life-long Republican, I was immensely proud of the eight candidates for president at the debate. Their views were in stark contrast to the “woke” party.
The Republicans are on the “right” side on the issues that matter to the voters — crime, border control, school choice, economy, tax cuts, unnecessary regulations, energy independence, inflation, gas prices, Ukraine, and other foreign policy issues.
I’m glad Donald Trump declined to participate. Had he been present, the two-hour debate would have been focused on him. Republican and unaffiliated voters needed to see that they have several alternatives to Trump and I believe they did.
Phil Kirk, Raleigh
School buses
The writer is Clean Energy Campaigns Director at the NC League of Conservation Voters.
As North Carolina’s 1.2 million school children get back in the classroom, I’m looking forward to having cleaner, quieter buses to drive our kids to school. In Durham County, Discovery Charter School was awarded $2.3 million for electric school buses that won’t subject our kids to toxic diesel fumes on their daily rides.
Even though buses leave behind plumes of dark smoke, the air quality inside the bus is five times worse than outside the bus. Our kids and school bus drivers are experiencing far worse effects. They deserve a safe, clean ride to and from school.
Clean energy is our future, and so are our kids. Electric school buses will save our schools money, with lower operating costs and less fuel used. Thanks to federal grants like these and funding from the Affordable Clean Energy Plan, we can give kids cleaner, safer rides to class and save our school systems money.
Michelle Carter, Durham
