The Restore Campus Free Speech Act

Posted on August 3, 2017 by admin in Children, Civics, Culture, Dan Forest, Education Reform, Free Speech, History, Politics, Safety, UNC

"The further a society drifts from truth the more it will hate those who speak it." —George Orwell Four months after being overwhelmingly passed in the House, the Restore Campus Free Speech Act has become law.

House Bill 527 is bipartisan ‘campus free speech’ legislation that strengthens standards for free expression in our state university system and mandates that all public universities “ensure the fullest degree of intellectual freedom and free expression.”

HB527 requires UNC’s Board of Governors to develop, adopt, and implement various policies related to free expression, and to form a Committee on Free Expression which must make annual reports to the Board of Governors, the General Assembly, and the governor.

Up until now, there were no statutes addressing free speech for the University of North Carolina (UNC) institutions.

“It is critical that we reverse the trend of free speech being impeded on public university campuses in North Carolina,” said Representative Chris Millis, the bill’s chief sponsor. “And we must preempt further violations of those rights by fostering an environment of open thought and expression in the halls of higher education across North Carolina.”

The bill requires that all public universities include a section in their freshman orientation programs describing free speech principles and supporting school policies, and requires that our public universities establish a set of penalties for student protesters who interfere with the free speech rights of others or who disrupt events.

“It’s not ideological, it’s about doing the right thing,” said Representative Jonathan Jordan, the bill’s co-sponsor. “Speakers … are having their events permanently disrupted or canceled because certain student groups or individuals disagree with their beliefs.”

The bill was modeled after the Goldwater Institute’s policy report Campus Free Speech: A Legislative Proposal, co-authored by Dr. Stanley Kurtz. Professor Kurtz is an author and Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, and he wrote recently in the National Review Online about the passage of this groundbreaking legislation:

“It ensures that University of North Carolina policy will strongly affirm the importance of free expression. It prevents administrators from disinviting speakers whom members of the campus community wish to hear from. It establishes a system of disciplinary sanctions for students and anyone else who interferes with the free-speech rights of others, and ensures that students will be informed of those sanctions at freshman orientation. It reaffirms the principle that universities, at the official institutional level, ought to remain neutral on issues of public controversy to encourage the widest possible range of opinion and dialogue within the university itself. And it authorizes a special committee created by the Board of Regents to issue a yearly report to the public, the regents, the governor, and the legislature on the administrative handling of free-speech issues.”

Kurtz give the most credit for the successful passage of the bill into law to Lt. Governor Dan Forest, calling him the “guiding force” moving it through the legislature. “Forest and his staff,” said Kurtz, “provided critical early encouragement and support for the approach that eventuated in the Goldwater model bill.”

Governor Cooper refused to sign the new free speech protections into law, despite more than 20 percent of House Democrats joining all that chamber’s Republicans in supporting it.

The Times They Are A-changin’

After several disturbing instances last year at Appalachian State University, chancellor Sheri Everts seemed to take issue with certain kinds of political expression: “It is important to note that free speech is encouraged on our campus,” she said. “But not all speech that may be considered protected under state or federal laws is consistent with the university’s values and mission.”

In a recent poll of university students, 21% of the respondents believed that the First Amendment to the United States Constitution was an “outdated amendment that can no longer be applied in today’s society and should be changed.” And, in perhaps even more shockingly, 35% of the students thought that “hate speech is not protected under the 1st Amendment.”

This kind of rationalization for the restriction of free speech rights at public universities is what sponsors say makes this bill necessary. “That,” said Representative Jordan, “is the reason for this bill.”

This legislation also comes on the heels of recent protests aimed at shutting down certain speakers with whom they do not agree at schools around the country. Violent left-wing protesters have ended appearances by author Charles Murray at Middlebury College, conservative ‘agent provocateur’ Milo Yiannopoulos at University of California-Berkeley, and author Heather Mac Donald at Claremont McKenna College, to name just a recent few.

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Reforming the Foster Care System

Posted on July 31, 2017 by admin in Children, Government Reform, Health, Public Employees, Public Safety

Foster Care Bipartisan legislation overwhelmingly passed the General Assembly last month that takes steps to fix the ongoing challenges in North Carolina’s child welfare system. It was signed into law on June 21.

“Rylan’s Law” (House Bill 630) was named after Rylan Ott, a Moore County toddler who drowned in a pond after he was put back in his mother’s care only two months after being removed because of her drug and weapons charges. The judge’s decision to return Rylan to the troubled home was made despite objections from the guardian ad litem; the state’s Department of Social Services then failed to supervise the situation, never requiring home visitations. His mother, Samantha Bryant, was sentenced to 19 months in prison after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter and negligent child abuse.

In 2013, North Carolina made national headlines when an 11-year old Union County boy was discovered handcuffed to a porch with a dead chicken hanging around his neck. His foster parents, Wanda Sue Larson and Dorian Harper, later pled guilty to felony child abuse; shockingly, Larson was a supervisor for Union County’s own Department of Social Services — the same agency entrusted to care for the child.

Sadly, these cases are not isolated events. A 2015 federal performance review had North Carolina failing in every measured category and these findings were confirmed the next year in an independent evaluation by PCG, a government government contracting firm. Both showed pervasive systemic problems with North Carolina’s child welfare system.

To help prevent future cases like Rylan’s, HB630 requires county DSS agencies to observe a child with his or her parents at least twice prior to reunification. This provision is one of many included in the legislation that will address the issues that led to failed reviews and child fatalities.

Specifically, the bill:

Regionalizes supervision of local DSS offices;
Provides state DHHS with greater authority and responsibility to hold county agencies accountable for child outcomes;
Brings in a third party to develop and implement recommendations to transform child welfare services in North Carolina;
Requires social workers to observe a child with his/her parents at least twice before reunification (Rylan’s law);
Creates a council to align children’s services across government agencies;
Reduces barriers for youth in foster care to drive;
Reduces the time to permanency for children in the child welfare system.

“This legislation is a step in the right direction and puts the child above the current social services system, that in some parts of our state is failing our children, by demanding transparency, accountability, and quality of care for children in foster care. It’s time we reform our foster care system in favor of our children. They deserve nothing less,” said Representative David Lewis, who helped shepherd the new law through the legislature.

NC Unemployment at 11-year Low

Posted on July 28, 2017 by admin in Economy, Unemployment, Unemployment Reform

Helping Those Who Need It The Most

Posted on July 26, 2017 by admin in Cooper, Economy, Tax Reform, Taxes

Hundreds of thousands of hardworking North Carolinians will no longer pay any state income tax by 2019, thanks to several rounds of tax relief provided by the legislature’s Republican majority.

A recent memo from the head economist at the non-partisan Fiscal Research Division notes that “of the nearly 4 million tax returns anticipated for tax year 2019, we estimate the number of returns will decrease an estimated 230,000 when compared with the expected number if the 2012 tax laws were still in effect. The increase in these no-tax-liability returns will be due primarily to the increase in the standard deduction.”

When you do your taxes each year, the “standard deduction” is the dollar amount that reduces the amount of income on which you’re taxed. Put another way, any income you make below the “standard deduction” is protected on the front-end from being taxed by the government. A higher standard deduction is nice for everyone, of course, but it especially benefits hard-working taxpayers at the lower-end of the wage scale. The higher the standard deduction, the less of your income is taxed; sometimes it’s referred to as “the zero tax bracket.”

Republicans have tripled the standard deduction for married families filing jointly since 2013, an approach to tax relief that helps those who earn the least by significantly reducing or altogether eliminating the percentage of their income paid to the state.

Governor Roy Cooper’s Department of Revenue believes that even more folks will be helped under the Republican plan, projecting that 241,536 low-income families and individuals will no longer pay any income tax by 2019.

When the legislature was last under Democrat control, the standard deduction was a mere $3,000 for individual taxpayers and just $6,000 for married couples (filing jointly). Democrats taxed all your income over that amount; the latest round of Republican tax reform more than tripled the state’s zero tax bracket — effectively freeing nearly a quarter of a million of lower-income people from having to pay any income tax.

“Helping hundreds of thousands of low-income North Carolinians no longer owe any income tax is an outstanding achievement that proves Republican tax reforms are providing relief to citizens who need it most,” said House Speaker Tim Moore. “These include parents and young people, long-time residents and newcomers who will get a break from owing any income tax because we put average people first with relief that works for the workforce and helps low-income families keep more of their earnings.”

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