Recent editorials from North Carolina newspapers:
April 25
The Fayetteville Observer on Sen. Richard Burr:
Richard Burr’s got some explaining to do. He made it into the “Mueller report” and in the process may have undermined the credibility of the Senate Intelligence Committee, which he chairs. The committee has conducted a long and until now credible investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, including a review of possible contacts between the Russians and the Trump campaign.
Former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, a California Republican, discredited his committee’s probe when he shared information with the White House even before all his fellow committee members were briefed. But Burr has widely been viewed as even-handed and circumspect in his committee’s probe, which has exhibited often remarkable bipartisanship.
But now special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on his investigation of Russian influence on the campaign raises the possibility that Burr was blabbing to the president as well. In 2017, the report says, shortly after congressional leaders including Burr were briefed by then-FBI Director James Comey on the FBI’s probe, “the White House Counsel’s Office was in contact with SSCI Chairman Sen. Richard Burr about the Russian investigations and appears to have received information about the status of the FBI investigation.”
A Burr spokeswoman said the senator “does not recall this specific conversation.” That’s not good enough, by a long stretch. Burr chairs a key committee in the Russia investigation and he’s no fool. If he did have a conversation with the White House in the explosive early days of the probe, he’d surely remember it - and would have the phone logs to jog his memory, if needed.
Burr owes the country, and especially his constituents here in North Carolina, an explanation. And he needs to deliver it himself, not through a spokeswoman. This is a serious question of credibility for the senator and for the investigation he’s leading.
Online:
https://www.fayobserver.com/opinion/20190425/our-view-what-happened-sen-burr
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March 17
The Daily News of Jacksonville on arming school teachers:
The notion of arming public school teachers has come around again, from some of the usual suspects in the General Assembly.
This idea was floated last year but got nowhere, even when Republicans had super-majorities in both houses of the legislature.
State Schools Superintendent Mark Johnson, a Republican who’s no liberal snowflake, thinks it’s a bad idea. So do two-thirds to three-quarters of North Carolina teachers, depending on which poll you pick.
The latest version, in the state Senate, has the kicker that teachers who agree to pack heat - up to 3,000 of them statewide - would get a 5% increase in their paychecks.
The gun-packing teachers - officially “teacher resource officers” - would be required to have similar training to a sheriff’s deputy and would have the same powers as a regular law enforcement officer, including arrest, while on the school grounds.
Anyone who knows how an ordinary school works - as opposed, say, to a Bruce Willis movie - can see all sorts of ways this can go wrong.
The teacher resource officers won’t wear uniforms. So, in the event of an “active shooter incident,” it’s hard to say how a police officer, arriving on the scene, could tell an armed teacher from an armed intruder.
In the event of an incident, it’s not guaranteed the armed teachers would be armed. (They’d have the option of keeping their pieces in a locked safe on premises. How long would it take to run and fetch it?)
The possibilities of accident or theft are all too easy to imagine.
And it’s not as if schools are without security. North Carolina sheriff’s departments and other agencies station more than 1,000 trained officers - known as school resource officers - on campuses already. We support adding more of these positions.
More guns do not mean more security. They mean more gunfire and more things that could go wrong.
We think the N.C. Association of Educators and other teachers’ groups are right. Instead of spending money on arming teachers, we would do well to hire more school nurses, counselors and psychologists. They could do a much better job of spotting and helping troubled youths before some of them show up at school with assault weapons.
We also endorse the idea of proactively forming smaller school communities, especially at the high school level. Robert Smith, a UNCW professor, made the argument in a Nov. 18 op-ed, “A Step We Should Take to Curb School Violence.” Smith says many students are currently “lost in the crowd” in large high schools and would benefit from closer relationships with “a caring adult and student connections within a group.” Such connections, Smith writes, could reduce the likelihood of students resorting to violence, and also improve the chance that someone contemplating violence would be discovered.
That is the type of solution we should be pursuing, not giving teachers guns. That’s an arms race that will do no one any good.
Online:
https://www.jdnews.com/opinion/20190317/our-view-arming-teachers-remains-terrible-idea
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April 25
StarNews of Wilmington on an upcoming teacher rally:
While we are sympathetic to their cause, we are disappointed that enough teachers plan to miss school May 1 to attend a rally in Raleigh that several districts are cancelling classes.
We supported a similar tactic by teachers last year because a variety of legitimate needs seemed to be falling on deaf ears in the General Assembly.
This year is different. Effectively causing thousands of students who missed several weeks - some a month - of classes after Hurricane Florence to miss another day is misguided. It’s also, we believe, an ineffective way to rally support for their important causes at this time and sends the wrong message.
At the end of the day, students must come first. For teachers in our area, this action at this particular moment doesn’t meet that standard. It sends the wrong message and could very well actually hurt their cause locally.
As of Wednesday, the Brunswick and New Hanover school districts had announced they were cancelling classes. According to a news release, 440 NHCS teachers have requested leave that day and Superintendent Tim Markley said “we cannot safely operate the schools.” Brunswick County made a similar announcement last week.
Under rules set by the General Assembly, teachers have a variety of options to take days off. (May 1 will be an optional teacher workday for New Hanover schools and it wasn’t clear yet if students will have to make up the missed day.)
In Pender County, where students missed as many as 30 days - depending on their school - after Hurricane Florence, officials asked teachers to designate two representatives from each school to attend the rally. Given the special circumstances this past school year, that is a reasonable compromise. Classes in Pender have not been canceled.
The rally is being organized by the N.C. Association of Educators, a professional association that some people mistakenly believe is a union. Collective bargaining by public employees is illegal in North Carolina.
With little to no bargaining power, teachers must rely on voters to elect leaders at both the state and local levels who support their causes. Some progress has been made on pay, but teachers still have many legitimate concerns. One concern has been the general disrespect and misconception of teachers’ duties and challenges shown by too many politicians. It’s up to voters to force changes.
Teachers need those voters to be on their side in a passionate and proactive way. Perhaps sending designated representatives to Raleigh and making it clear the reason more were not going was because of their unflagging devotion to the needs of their students in a difficult school year would have been a better way to gain more of that support this time around.
Online:
https://www.starnewsonline.com/opinion/20190425/our-view-wilmington-area-teachers-might-be-hurting-their-cause-this-time
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