Governance Gaffes

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  The Right Changes for UNC Steven Bachenheimer and Stephen Leonard The UNC Strategic Planning process has always been an occasion to recommit ourselves to the ideals for which public higher education in North Carolina was established. Today, it appears to have become the occasion for implementing radical changes favored by a handful of individuals in the state legislature, on the UNC Board of Governors, and in various Washington and Raleigh think tanks. Against all evidence to the contrary, and against the long and venerable tradition that has made public higher education in North Carolina a model for the nation and the world, the changes being promoted suggest that the widely available, broadly accessible, and readily affordable system of higher education we have is an extravagance North Carolina does not need. For example, Board of Governors member Fred Eshelman, described by pundits at the Pope Center for Higher Education Policy as “leading the charge” for radical change,
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The Silent Sam settlement snafu

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The conflicts over the Silent Sam settlement are all over the place, and this posting will have to be updated later on, but it is worth remembering a couple fundamental governance points about this issue. First: while the Legislature and the BoG have lawful authority here, in this case both the cause of these difficulties and their resolution entail unlawful (and arguably unconstitutional) acts of failure on the part of the BoG. I will be brief.         The initial failing is that the Board did not sue the legislature for remedy when the monuments legislation (NCGS 100) was enacted. The purpose of the enacting legislation for the University and the authority of the Board (NCGS 116) is to enable the realization of the  education provisions of the NC Constitution (NC Constitution Article IX) and by legal precedent the equal protection provisions of the US Constitution (14th Amendment). By failing to remove the confederate monument the BoG followed NCGS 100 and did not protect t
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Charter, Achievement, UNC Lab Schools, and the Statutory Corruption of K12 Education

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Many North Carolinians may be familiar with the controversial – and increasingly evident – academic, financial, and governance failings of a number of North Carolina charter schools . This should come as no surprise: more than a few observers predicted that the legislature’s peremptory style, and its dogged determination to ignore facts, evidence, and the rule of reason in the governance of our public schools, virtually assured the corruption of public charter school initiatives in North Carolina. In most places, being called out for bungled lawmaking, especially in education policy, might encourage a bit of humility and self-restraint from legislators. Not so on Jones Street, where the public good is frequently sacrificed to hubris, and power-mongering all-too-often supplants the wise restraint of good governance. And so when many existing charter school schemes were scrutinized and found wanting , and rumblings were heard that many new proposals might not pass muster eve
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