Observer Forum: Letters to the editor 10.27.15

Let’s gracefully welcome UNC leader

Margaret Spellings – bless her heart – has been selected as president of the UNC system. I am reminded of the response to Barack Obama’s first election: Republican leader Mitch McConnell was quoted as saying that their top priority was to make Obama a one-term president, to obstruct him at every turn.

Today, the UNC Board of Governors, the faculty, the students, and all the rest of us have a splendid opportunity to welcome Spellings to a daunting job with grace and cooperation. Let’s be the grown-ups and do it.

Qualifications took a back seat at UNC

Being the president of a university without an advanced degree is like a person writing cookbooks without tasting. Politics and eduction don’t mix. Although politicians write education checks, they should know the difference between real education and “puffing.”

A real blow to a fine university system

What a sad day for North Carolina and its university system. We have fired a widely respected president and replaced him with a politician from Texas – a state not known for its education but rather, for revising its textbooks and curriculum to rewrite history and debunk facts.

This Republican legislature and now Republican university board have dealt a real blow to what has been regarded as a fine system. Ms. Spellings is quoted as saying “she wants to firmly establish the University of North Carolina as the finest university system in the country.” I believe we already had that before our politicians decided to make this about politics instead of education.

Spellings hire a step toward improvement

Academic accountability, fiscal responsibility, common sense oversight and logical reform. No wonder higher education’s faculty of status quo is leery of Margaret Spellings.

Turning a large ship is never easy.

If we all get behind this effort our university system will cruise into the future with full sails.

Pay raise logic works for teachers, too

So Craig Horn (R-Davidson) is concerned the annual salary plus expense allotments for the part-time General Assembly members that adds up to about $30-40,000 won’t attract the “Young, bright, and maybe not-so-young bright people” who won’t be able to “afford to do this.”

Perhaps he and his fellow legislators might want to ask the state’s teachers and other employees how they manage. Raising the issue wouldn’t just seem self-serving, it would be another slap in the face to our state’s teachers and other state employees.

So pay is the reason for weak lawmakers

I was disappointed to learn from your article that we pay our state legislators as poorly as we do our City Council members and even our mayor.

No wonder our “leaders” are so dubious. We get what we pay for.

Sweden’s slaughter vs. our slaughters

I just saw a news alert that two people were slaughtered at a Swedish school by a crazy man with a sword. That’s two people. Not 26 like Newtown Elementary. Or nine like Umpqua Community College. Or 32 like Virginia Tech. Or 12 at Aurora. I could go on and on.

No civilized country in the world has mass killings like the United States does, because no civilized country in the world has the NRA and the Republican party standing in the way of reasonable gun laws.

Don’t forget value of media specialists

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools students using their student ID numbers to access resources at 20 library locations is a great idea. However, this should not replace a valuable resource already available in CMS – the school media center.

CMS is losing its media specialists. Some at high poverty schools. Many students most likely would not utilize this new technology unless they have trained Master’s Degree media specialists introducing students to the library, books and resources.

You have to know what a library is in order to use one.

This story was originally published October 26, 2015 at 6:12 PM with the headline "Observer Forum: Letters to the editor 10.27.15."