REPUBLICANS AREN’T FEELING THE LOVE THIS TEACHER APPRECIATION WEEK
It’s been a rough time for Republicans who are desperate to prove that they’re putting public education before corporate tax cuts – without actually doing it. So far they’ve tried:
- Attacking teachers for complaining too much: Lt. Gov Dan Forest said teacher’s concerns “have really been taken care of” and that “nobody is forcing [teachers] to take these jobs.”
- Lying about their proposed raises: Once the teacher march was over, Republicans revealed that the teacher raises they boasted about would only go to teachers with 15+ years of experience and wouldn’t kick in until halfway through the school year.
- Silencing teachers by preventing future rallies: House Republicans included a provision in their budget that would block future rallies in the hopes of silencing teachers.
- Promoting a deceptive website with misleading data on teacher pay: See below.
MARK JOHNSON’S DECEPTIVE DATA
The website, which was meant to encourage transparency on teacher pay but looks more like a campaign to boost Johnson’s approval ratings, brags that North Carolina’s average teacher pay is higher than the state’s median household income. Those with an understanding of basic math were quick to note this disingenuous comparison skews the data in Johnson’s, and the GOP’s, favor.
From CBC’s editorial board:
TILLIS’ WORST WEEK EVER
Here’s a quick recap:
Monday – Tillis Earns a Primary Challenger
Tillis’ primary problem makes statewide and national news, with coverage focusing on Senator Tillis’ weakness and his “flip-flop for the ages.”
- harmful trade wars that exacerbate the “crisis that is really out here in the farm world right now”
- “a disastrous and costly federal government shutdown”
- a federal disaster relief package “that calls for elected officials of the president’s party like Senator Tillis to stand up and push back”
- Tucker and Trump-backer Sean Hannity slam Tillis as “very, very weak,” with Hannity saying this “is going to be a big, big primary fight.”
- Tillis bowed to Presidential threats and blasted Sen. Richard Burr for subpoenaing Donald Trump Jr.
- Tillis faced protestors upset with his attacks on their health care, with one protestor saying she just “wants to keep her kid safe”
Tucker “comes out swinging,” launching a statewide TV ad slamming Senator Tillis, saying, “What Congress needs is backbone” after promising to “drain the swamp.”
NC REPUBLICANS BLOCK REVOKE CONSENT BILL
Passing this bill should be a bipartisan priority – instead, Republicans are putting partisan politics before commonsense solutions.
From Sen. Jackson:
WHAT EDITORIAL BOARDS ARE SAYING
Greensboro News & Record:
“Foremost, Medicaid expansion would provide care for North Carolinians who could otherwise afford none and would quite probably save a number of lives. It also would create as many as 40,000 jobs and help struggling rural hospitals….Medicaid expansion would help to address the state’s spiraling opioid crisis by providing greater access to treatment. And, of course, this increased coverage would be almost completely funded by the federal government — using taxes North Carolinians already pay. Beyond politics, there is no practical reason not to expand Medicaid in North Carolina.”
On redistricting…
Fayetteville Observer:
“We were hopeful that this would be the year North Carolina changed the way it does redistricting for congressional and General Assembly seats. After all, we’ve been slapped by the courts so many times we’ve lost count. We hold the dubious title of the state most likely to commit shameless and discriminatory gerrymandering. Our record is so bad that the U.S. Supreme Court, which has long been loathe to meddle in the politics of redistricting, decided to accept a North Carolina case.”
On Mark Johnson’s deceptive data…
CBC:
“Johnson and his patrons in the state legislature’s leadership have been unrelenting in their efforts to camouflage their tax-cutting largess to corporations and penny-pinching education spending as generosity. Educators didn’t flood Raleigh last week because they were having a hard time spending the money General Assembly appropriated for public education. They understand addition and subtraction. They know the differences between “average” and “median.” They can discern the truth (“I forgot to do my assignment”) from fiction (“The dog ate my homework.”) They also have the ability to distinguish between propaganda and transparency. Taxpayer funds need to be spent to present information enlightens and empowers citizens – not distorts and misleads to further entrench public officials.”
