Recent editorials from North Carolina newspapers:
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Aug. 11
Winston-Salem Journal on challenges the University of North Carolina System system faces as it assesses the new academic year:
As the University of North Carolina System faces the challenges of COVID-19, university and state leaders should have their priorities clear.
First, the health and safety of students, faculty, staff and the communities around the schools must be the No. 1 consideration. COVID-19 has already killed more than 2,000 North Carolinians and has left others with serious lingering health problems. Neither the universities nor the state should unnecessarily risk more deaths.
Second, as they make decisions about budget cuts, officials should remind themselves that while universities must be operated wisely and efficiently, they are much more than businesses. Reduced income must be dealt with, and that will require tough choices. But, for the long-term good of the university system and the state, the bottom line cannot drive all decisions.
The challenges are serious. A new report about plans to deal with financial losses related to dropping enrollment is alarming. The report looks at how the campuses would react to budget cuts that could result if enrollment drops anywhere from 2% to 50% as the pandemic grinds on. Reduced enrollment, of course, means less tuition and fees coming in.
That’s not all. If sports, especially basketball and football, can’t go on as usual, that will mean more lost income. If campuses reopen to students, new health and safety measures will cost money. The economy’s downturn will hurt donations. If students can’t be on campus, or if their experience is diminished, there will be pressure for reductions in tuition and fees. With the economy in shambles, more students will need financial aid. The ripple effects spread.
Facing these grim prospects, it’s no wonder the campuses feel pressure to open up, bring students back, and get things back to normal. But safety must be the primary consideration.
There’s no question that the university system is going to suffer major financial hits. The question is whether university and state leaders will make the necessary wise choices to minimize the lasting effects.
The UNC System has long been a vital force for good in North Carolina. The schools have helped students prepare for productive lives and careers. They have helped countless young people better themselves, building a strong middle class that makes for a stable and prosperous society. Research on campuses helps the state, the nation and the world. The resources on the campuses, with their libraries, laboratories, classrooms and faculties, are invaluable.
If positions are eliminated, salaries slashed, workloads increased, research curbed, employees furloughed and other worst-case scenarios come true, the damage could be hard to reverse.
Once the COVID crisis is behind us, the UNC System will be needed more than ever.
North Carolina can’t afford to base decisions about the university system too rigidly on dollars and cents. Enrollment drops and lost income should not automatically mean wholesale cuts in budgets, personnel and educational opportunities.
The General Assembly should make decisions for the long haul, so that the UNC System will remain strong and be ready - and able to help North Carolina’s recovery. That will mean investing in the universities to help them make it through this crisis.
Online: https://journalnow.com
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Aug. 9
The News & Observer and The Charlotte Observer on low census participation in North Carolina:
North Carolina needs to get serious about getting counted.
The U.S. Census Bureau began soliciting responses to the 2020 census on April 1, but four months later only 59 percent of North Carolina households have responded compared to 63 percent nationally, a response level that puts North Carolina behind at least 30 other states. North Carolina is even about 5 percent behind its own response rate in the 2010 census.
The lagging count could carry a heavy cost for North Carolina, the nation’s ninth largest state. The census numbers guide how much funding North Carolina receives for many federal programs., including Medicaid, Head Start, school lunches, Pell grants, food stamps and food stamps.
“It’s always of critical importance that the census be as accurate as possible for funding,” said Rebecca Tippett, director of Carolina Demography at the Carolina Population Center at UNC-Chapel Hill. “When those numbers are not accurate, we risk that communities are not fully represented and they don’t receive their fair share of funds.”
With more than 4 million North Carolina residents who have not been counted, the state is at risk of losing $7.4 billion annually in federal funding, according to Bob Coats, the governor’s census liaison in the Office of State Budget and Management
The census is yet another crucial operation stymied by the pandemic, but this one can’t recover after a vaccine arrives. The 2020 count will determine the allocation of federal funds, guide new state legislative and congressional district lines and shape government and business decisions for the next decade..
The Census Bureau has encouraged online responses and its website has held up well, but that push has not been enough to offset the pandemic’s drag. In North Carolina, the online option is also limited by a lack of internet access in rural areas. For instance, Graham County in far western North Carolina has an internet response rate of 17 percent. In Wake County it’s 63 percent.
Starting this week, census workers will take to the field and knock on the doors of non-responding households. That task has become even more urgent now that the Trump administration decided to end the count on Sept. 30, a month earlier than expected. That change will ensure that more hard-to-reach people – such as the transient poor and undocumented immigrants – will go uncounted.
While the pandemic has greatly complicated the census – and likely will compromise its accuracy – the Republican-led General Assembly added to the difficulty. Lawmakers rejected both requests from Gov. Roy Cooper – first for $1.5 million and then even half that – to support a state campaign promoting the census.
A non-profit group, NC Counts Coalition, is coordinating a statewide effort to increase the state’s census response. Stacey Carless, the group’s executive director, said the coalition has spent about $2.5 million, much of it directed at improving the census response in rural areas and historically undercounted groups, people of color and young children.
Census Bureau workers, non-profits and local governments will push hard to increase North Carolina’s response rate. But given how far behind the state is now and the Trump administration’s unwillingness to give the counting more time during a pandemic, it will be hard to move the needle.
The state, local governments, businesses, churches and citizens should join in a push to have more of North Carolina’s isolated rural residents, urban poor, immigrants and people of color counted in the next two months, even if some in Washington would rather that they not be.
The census will paint a portrait of North Carolina for the next 10 years. It should be a true one.
To respond to the U.S. Census, visit 2020census.gov or call 844-330-2020
Online: https://www.newsobserver.com
Online: https://www.charlotteobserver.com
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Aug. 6
The News & Record on the aftermath of Hurricane Isaias:
All things considered, the latest tropical storm to lash the Carolina coast almost seems a minor concern - especially when compared to the pandemic that has cost North Carolina thousands of lives.
But Tropical Storm Isaias, which made landfall near Ocean Isle Beach as a hurricane late on Aug. 3 with maximum sustained winds of 85 mph, left a path of destruction that will take considerable time and resources to address.
The storm crushed homes and businesses, piled boats against the docks, caused floods and fires that displaced dozens of people and left a foot of sand covering streets, The Associated Press reported. More than 650,000 residents in North Carolina lost electricity.
On top of that, at least seven people in the U.S. have died, including two near Windsor in Bertie County who were killed by a tornado generated by the storm. A dozen more were sent to the hospital, according to a report from Gov. Roy Cooper’s office. That was after the storm had killed two people in the Caribbean.
Not content to cause destruction in the South, Isaias made its way up the East Coast. Trees were toppled in Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey. Neighborhoods in Philadelphia were flooded.
The National Weather Service reported gusts of 147 mph in Mount Washington, N.H. All along the East Coast, the storm left more than 3.7 million people without electricity. It was expected to dissipate late last night or this morning in southeastern Canada.
“One of the most damaging storms the Northeast has ever experienced,” Fox News Senior Meteorologist Janice Dean called it on “Fox & Friends First.”
Despite warnings ahead of time, not everyone expected the storm to be so powerful. But Gov. Roy Cooper had the foresight to declare a state of emergency on July 31 and formally requested a federal declaration of emergency, which President Trump granted.
Shelters are now housing people whose homes were demolished or flooded and utility crews have begun working to repair the damage. Work crews have already restored electricity to nearly half of the affected homes and businesses in North Carolina, according to the Governor’s Office.
In the meantime, victims of the storm will still have to contend with the coronavirus. They’ll have their hands full for sure, trying to clean and repair the damage while maintaining safety protocols.
Sometimes it seems like this year has just been one bad thing after another - and it’s not over yet. The 2020 Atlantic hurricane season doesn’t end until Nov. 30, and it’s already proven to be an especially busy one.
A forecast released … by Colorado State University researchers predicts “an extremely active” season for the Atlantic basin.
Their latest projections call for 24 named storms, 12 of which are expected to become hurricanes. Five are expected to become major hurricanes. That means Category 3 or higher, with winds of more than 110 mph.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has revised and upgraded its forecast as well.
At least this time, we were largely spared in the Piedmont. But we’ve had our share of storm damage in the past, and we likely will in the future.
We urge all who can to donate to the Red Cross, the United Way and other organizations to help our neighbors get through this crisis.
That’s what we do here; we help one another. We weather our storms together.
Online: https://greensboro.com
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