To hear Republicans tell it, North Carolina duped the rest of the country for almost 50 years. We sold ourselves as an enlightened state that valued education, nurtured our cultural heritage, and supported the arts. We convinced people that our mountains were spectacular with uncluttered vistas, our beaches pristine and open to the public, and our piedmont an ideal place to start and grow businesses.
And all those saps believed it. They moved here in droves, making North Carolina one of the fastest growing states in the nation. Magazines like Site Selection, Forbes, and Chief Executive were fooled into naming us among the best states in the nation for business. States around the country foolishly pointed to North Carolina as a model for early childhood education and turning around public schools. And our state university system was consistently named among the best in the nation, providing the highest level of education at the lowest price.
In reality, the Republicans say, we were a high tax state that didn’t perform economically better than most of our Southern neighbors. Those protected beaches and mountains stifled exploitation of natural resources that would generate higher profits. Our public schools underperform while we overpay a bunch of lazy teachers who get summers off. And that overrated university system is a revenue hog that protects a bunch of pointy-headed liberal professors who add little to our economy.
Fortunately, the GOP is about to set our state right before the rest of the country figures out the scam. They will build seawalls to protect existing developments and encourage more. They’re loosening burdensome regulations that might have protected our water and air but prevented polluters from maximizing profits. And they cut funding to public education while increasing competition with vouchers and charters to add free-market principals and values to schools.
And this year, they are going to fix that damn university system. They are getting rid of that socialist UNC President, Tom Ross, and they’re forcing efficiency by once again cutting the bloated university budget. They’re stifling the rabble-rousers and chasing off professors who expect too much money for too little work.
In an op-ed today, Tom Ross pointed out what the GOP has missed. The University system is one the major economic engines in the country. It’s served as a giant incubator providing the fertile ground to grow powerhouses like SAS, Cree, and Quintiles. We attract talent who make discoveries in everything from medicine to textiles. The people who do the work in or with the university system are the entrepreneurs that the GOP hails as heroes.
Businesses that provide high paying jobs move to states for more than just lower taxes and less regulations. For fifty years, they came to North Carolina because of our strong university system and our quality of life. They will continue to come if we invest in the institutions that provide them a well-trained workforce and the collaborative environment that encourages successful research and development. They will not if we believe that lower taxes is more important than investments in research and education.
Thomas Mills is the founder and publisher of PoliticsNC.com. Before beginning PoliticsNC, Thomas spent twenty years as a political and public affairs consultant. Learn more >
Excellent post, Mr. Mills — and equally excellent responses. I would point out that the only resource we have to rectify the regressive hell in which we find ourselves is the ballot box. The shame is ours if we don’t use it.
Excellent opinion piece, Mr. Mills.
The Republican’ts in Raleigh have raised taxes on most North Carolinians including working and middle class citizens and small business owners and professionals while claiming to be lowering taxes … gutted our great university system and made our public school system the laughing stock of the country while claiming to be for better education … meddled in local affairs while claiming to be for local control … denied medical insurance to hundreds of thousands of citizens while claiming to be working for the good of the people … taken away the civil rights of our LGBT, African-American, Hispanic-heritage and senior citizen friends while claiming to be protecting freedom of religion and stopping voter fraud … and even have driven away high-paying jobs in many industries including the movies, manufacturing and agriculture while claiming to be pro-business development.
I have begun to wonder if the University System has been charging enough for the research. It appears that across the nation companies and corporations have dispensed with funding their own research and development and turning to the Universities and colleges for it. In my experience corporations look for the best possible deal they can get. If the research is so valuable, then why exactly does the price of the education go up and up? How much are students who pay to attend contributing to this research, and when and how do we turn to those benefiting from the research and ask for them to pay more, for it does not appear to me to be fair to be asking the students to pay more, and not be asking the beneficiaries of that research to pay more. Was President Ross fired for asking the same question?
Russell: I am a former research grant administrator at two land grant universities in two states, including at NCSU.
The amounts that universities can “charge” for federal research (by far, the feds are the biggest source of university research funding) are pretty much set in stone, and are based mainly on the salaries of the faculty/techs involved and the allowable overheads (or “indirect costs”) that are negotiated between universities and the federal government. There are no acceptable/legal grounds to just “charge more.”
Also, colleges are really not allowed to allocate dollars that are reimbursed in the conduct of university research toward lessening such non-research-related costs such as student tuition. It substantially holds the same way with private corporate grants.
Plus, most private corporations have dropped or cut direct funding of university research projects. Rather, they let the state or feds or international orgs fund investigations in wider fields of science, and then reference/utilize the findings to guide/focus their own in-house research activities.
Great post Thomas. I wish there were a way to put a copy in every legislator’s email box. Truth is they probably would read it but who knows, nothing ventured nothing gained to try to turn that bunch around.
I see no reason why we can’t cut and paste to our own Facebook page and other pages we are members of. I plan to do so. This is a great article and a needed reminder to all. I am going to send it to all my legislative members as well as others I am acquainted with. Even the Governor and council of State.
Barbara, good idea. Also excuse typo in my post. “Truth is they probably would NOT read it…”
The editorial by Ross was very well done. It left me shaking my head in shame and dread about this state and its future. When a leader who truly understands what the university system and campus-based research means to the state’s benefit gets sacked because….well just “because” (the Board never gave a reason, other than he’s done a great job), it doesn’t portend well at all.
Yes, yes, I know. Despite not being articulated, the reason for Ross’ sacking was obvious. Ross has historically been on the Dem side of things, and would clearly and forcefully defend the university against further expected cuts by the GOP. And Republicans simply didn’t want to have to deal with that when they could more easily put a “yes” person in the presidency.
I’ll bet that whomever the GOP puts in the president’s chair will not come close to having the integrity, insight, gravitas, or leadership capabilities that Ross has.
I agree, it is a great article. We need to get this out to all we can. I will see what I can do here in Wayne County and spread the word on all venues I am a member of. I hope others follow suit.