For years now our governors, Mike Easley (D) for the last several, Jim Hunt(D)before him, and now Bev Purdue (D) Have called NC an "Education State" - note since 1900 NC has had all Democrat governors except for 12 years - though we consistently fall near the bottom of any national ranking in education.

Taken from Purdue's website

...The budget utilizes $2.9 billion of federal recovery monies to support education and other mission-critical services over the biennium.
That is why my budget recommendations focus on:

• Growing North Carolina’s Economy
• Improving Public Education
• Keeping Higher Education Accessible and Affordable
• Making Government More Efficient and Accountable ...
Today I signed my first piece of legislation -- a bill that lays the foundation for a major restructuring of our state education leadership. Senate Bill 198 paves the way for Dr. Bill Harrison to serve as both CEO of our state’s public schools and Chair of the State Board.
This new leadership structure...

here I need to say, we already have an elected State Superintendent of schools, this "new position" is nothing more than an additional layer (read unnecessary money spent) of an appointment by the governor (read she is trying to do an end run around the voters' choice of state superintendent -a D as well, btw- to put in her own crony) - Fire his ass now! I'm betting his new pay package alone would fund at least 3 of the teacher jobs being cut, probably more. Not to mention all the money it takes to fund his staff, office, and all the extra bureaucracy this new office includes, more administration - as usual - fewer soldiers in the trenches.

In March teachers in NC learned that they were taking an across the board retroactive to the first of the year pay cut. All the retroactive cut to be taken from their pay at once in May. Also the bonus long term (10 yrs plus) teachers have gotten for years now is being suspended for the next three years. They were told these cuts were to prevent teacher layoffs. Now we are seeing state wide teacher layoffs anyway. In my county alone, out of 1,900 teaching positions 110 are being cut, 80 receiving pink slips on June 1. All this in addition to learning in Jan that their insurance premiums were going up and their deductibles being raised. Nice. Education state are we?

We in NC fund 500 new teaching fellows per year ($6,500 per year for four years) meaning at any given time tax payers are funding 2,000 college students. These kids agree to teach in NC for four years, or refund their scholarships at 10% interest. So now that we are laying off established teachers- with families and mortgages, what are we going to do with the 500 newly graduated teaching fellows? Are we going to lay off these established teachers so that the new teachers can work - as we promised them? Or are we saddling newly minted teachers with a 10% student loan to pay off, and no job?

from Bev Purdue's campaign site (she was just elected)
We all know and agree that it’s the Democratic Party that represents the values of North Carolina. We’re the party that stands up for our working families. We’re the party that’ll improve public education - Don't you just love this? "We all know and agree?" - excuse me lady, but "we" by no means all know or agree on this, and you are the party that stands up for working families? auto industry workers anyone? but I digress on that -"we are the party that will improve public education" by eliminating teaching positions? increasing class size? come again!?!?

For a more detailed listing of cuts in NC's education budget, from Transparent Learning I learned this - and she got it from Public School Forum of NC

• Shorten the school year by 5 days in FY 2009-10 and 5 more days (total of 10) in FY 2010-11. (This is ok by me)
• Increase class size teacher allotment by 2 per grade (-6,005 Classroom Teachers) (not so ok, this is a smoke screen of sorts, yes in elementary school it might average out to 2 per class, not neccessarily bad, but this is an average - means some will be 3,4,5 more per class and once you get beyond elementary you have teachers who teach specific subjects so eleminating say a math teacher from a department increases class size by much more than 2. But saying 2 per class makes it all sound so reasonable...)
• Eliminate Teacher Assistants in grade 3 (-4,663 Teacher Assistants) (3rd graders shouldn't need teacher's assistants, but I hate seeing these people loose their jobs as well, these are low paying jobs and for the most part the state gets more than their money's worth from aides)
• Reduce Low Wealth Supplemental Funding – Fund counties @ 90% and below. This adjustment
would eliminate funding 13 LEAs (Craven, Cumberland, Davie, Gaston, Lincoln, Madison,
Mitchell, Onslow, Pender, Perquimans, Union, Warren, Yancey). - not sure how this will affect these counties, but it sure doesn't show a commitment to education for everyone now does it?
• Reduce Instructional Support (- 354 counselors, media, social workers)- again, commitment to education?
• Reduction to School Building Administration (-187 Assistant Principals)- probably to some extent more administration than is needed, but I bet these folks thought they had secure jobs. These are generally former teachers, their education and experiance is teaching, if we are cutting teaching jobs what are these people supposed to do for jobs now?
• 5% reduction to Non-instructional Support (clerical and custodians)- ok, but again I thought this state was committed to saving jobs for low income workers?
• Small County Supplemental Funding – a reduction of $4.5 million
• A 10% reduction to More @ 4 (After school program - and fine with me, schools shouldn't be tax funded babysitting services)
• Elimination of Learn and Earn On-Line (this is not so good, for some students in this state the on-line program is their only access to AP courses not offered at their own school, education commitment?)
• Elimination of application fee payment for National Board (ok, they can pay this themselves)
• Elimination of Literacy Coaches (I thought those were teachers?)
• Central Office (-5.38% or a reduction of $6.5 million)- GOOD! This is where cuts SHOULD happen!
• DPI – an 11% reduction in FY 2009-10 and an additional 4% (total of 15%) reduction in FY (2010-11. This would eliminate 52 positions in FY 2009-10 and 19 more (71 total) in FY 2010-11. (again GOOD! this is excess bureaucracy!)

This state began an "education lottery" in 2005 that was supposed to increase the funds for our public schools (this lottery was passed only due to a dirty underhanded trick aided by then Lt. Gov. Beverly Purdue). But from the beginning the lottery fund has been raided for other purposes by our Democrat led state government regularly, most recently by $50 million in late April. So now our schools don't have the money they need, lottery money that was supposed to be 100% for education.

Education state my ass....

Don't you hate it when someone cheats so that they can win something, then brags about winning? What is that? And I really really hate it when I know that the person cheated, as in competed in a region other than their own, in order to avoid the competition they knew would beat them in their own region - then brag about it!!
Ok, that rant is over now.

D3 is safely home from China, about 8 lbs lighter than she left and she barely weighted 100 pounds when she left - so can you say no butt at all? We'll get her all fed up soon though and get her back to that whopping 100 pounds (soaking wet). Kid can't afford to be loosing pounds. When you are already a size 0 - loosing weight is not helpful, they don't make size -1. Anyway, she did take some pictures so I'll try to get some of those posted this week. She also brought home two Chinese instruments of which she is very proud. Especially as she managed to get them for about $20 US each by haggling. You'd think the kid had traveled and haggled before :)

I'm in a bit of a pissy mood of late... wonder why?

Thank you rings hollow, tears flow when I think of them. I see faces I want to touch, hands I want to clasp. My heart aches with gratitude and sorrow.




Last August, as my D3 and I sat at the airport in Shannon Ireland, waiting for our flight home, we were suddenly surrounded by men and women of the US military. Some smiling and chatting, some quiet - grabbing some rest. They were on their way away from home (Texas)- toward danger in Baghdad. We took time to chat with some, there was one young woman in the group who had a tiny mandolin in her hands. She was trying to figure out how to tune it. She'd bought it to bring along and maybe learn a little how to play during her precious down time. My D3 reached for the mandolin with a smile, quickly tuned it and handed it back. Then explained the tuning and gave the soldier a few tips. I was so very proud - of both of them. D3 probably gave the soldier a gift greater than anything I could have. I hope that young woman is safe now - maybe even home.

Thanks to Joan I found a new place to visit for a good belly laugh this morning. Try this old dude for some good giggles. He is now officially one of my morning visits!

Sorry for the sparsity of posts these days. With home school in coast mode (most of my blog time is sitting at the computer whilst the boy does his work next to me) and D2 home I'm hurting for time to blog. D3 will be winging her way home from China tomorrow evening and we are all going to meet her boyfriend to welcome her back at the Charlotte airport (2 hours from here) then we'll stay in Charlotte as a family for a few days while himself works. I'm gonna take S1 to discovery place for a day, take the cello to the cello doctor for some minor surgery, then spend a day at Carowinds before heading home (S1, soon to be 12 years old, has never been to a theme park of any sort).

But I'm still here. Just busy busy busy.

I'm finally hearing from D3 and the ASU orchestra at least a little bit. They seem to be having a wonderful time. My emails from her tend to be rather short. I am informed that less than 7 days into their trip she has already spent most of her money... But she is excited about her purchases and plans to surprise us with what she got upon her return to the states. Hopefully she is not disappointed at not being able to pick something up further into her trip - so much for carefully rationing her Chinese cash! At the end of the day it doesn't really matter, she needs to spend it there cause it sure isn't going to do her any good here... at least not yet.

She took a camera, and is a pretty good photographer, but we'll see if she remembers to snap anything. I sure hope so.

They have already had several performances, the first couple the ASU orchestra was teamed up with the orchestra from a Chinese University and they performed together. Sounds like communication with the Chinese conductor was an adventure. Somewhere along the way in the second half of their trip they are supposed to be teaming up with a traditional Chinese orchestra playing traditional Chinese instruments. I sure wish there was going to be video of that!

Just in case I've left anyone wondering, D3 was four when she was diagnosed. She is 19 now and going gang busters. She doesn't remember much from when she was sick, though I think she remembers more than she realizes. It is just that we worked so hard to keep her days fun at the time that she doesn't realize all those days she dressed in kitty suits were days she was going for chemo : ) Anyway, sometime along the line I'll share that story plus the rest of her story (some has already been posted - check for D3 related posts if you missed them) but since I already shared D1, I'd probably better post on D2 next to keep her from feeling skipped.

A very uncommon sunny day here - after a morning low of 34! I'm taking the opportunity to bail hay in the front and back yards ; ) Then I think a trip to the park to throw frisbees for the corgis to runrunrun is in order...

Happy Birthday Joanie!!! Hope the blues weekend was a blast!

I've been tagged. For the very firstest time : ) Thanks for thinking of me Hapkido?!

Rules:

1) Post the rules on your blog.

2) Tell 5 random things about yourself.

3) Tag 3 people at the end of your post.

4) Pass on the tag.

Random things... ya know, since I only recently wrote my "about me" I'm gonna have to think about this to come up with 5 more random things...

1) I hate (fear) flying. But if you've read my about me you know I've been a lot of places that I couldn't have gotten to without flying, so obviously I don't let my irrational fear keep me from going places.

2) I have a parental form of PTSD. My third daughter was diagnosed with cancer when she was four years old, while we were in Europe on vacation. That time, the trauma of discovering her tumor - getting her into a hospital in a country with socialised medicine (that post is coming folks) - trying to get home a week before our scheduled flight at the height of tourist season - going straight from the airport to DUMC - and the following year and a half of trying to get her safely through treatment have messed with my ability to handle crisis.

3) I got my YMCA SCUBA certification when I was 12 years old.

4) I won an equitation class (judged totally on the rider) in a horse show when I was competing against a whole bunch of teenagers (I was 40ish) that ride all the time - I almost never rode by this point. and I WON, I WON, I WON, so there you snot nosed brats!!!!!!! the only class I ever won....

5) I once hand stitched an entire wedding gown from fabric that cost $300 a yard (my job at the time was sewing wedding gowns, prom dresses, etc)

hmm now whom to tag...

Jana at Speak,Dog! Speak!

vw bug at One Happy Dog Speaks , I mean it follows right?

and Joan of Argggg at Primordial Slack because himself likes to say "joan of Argggg!!!!!!" when he catches me reading her blog.

So there, another first for me :)

I'm no photographer, but here are some of my flowers. Note for the last 4-5 years my gardening has been limited to killing weeds so my plants are not flowering as well as they used to, but you can't tell from these pictures :) Some of these are worth embiggening.










I haven't tried roses yet, though I hope to get some heritage roses in some day. I just don't have much sun and I know roses need their sunlight. So I have peonies instead, and I love them.













I love iris too and I used to have tons of these old iris which are called flags by the old timers here in the mountains, but if you don't dig and split them every couple years they get too compacted and stop blooming - and I already told you what I've been doing so... I also used to have so many forget-me-nots they were like a blue cloud across the garden when they bloomed, not so much any more. Love me some johny-jump-ups.


These are called "Carolina Geranium" and are a wild flower that I cultivate - sort of. They are very prolific so some folks call them weeds :)




These blue ones are bell flowers.








Azalea




I have forgotten



















And that, more or less, is how MY garden grows.

PARAMUS, N.J. (CBS)
Christine Sloan

"I had to notify just around 50 people today that our business has been terminated, that they no longer have a job," said Kevin Ormes, owner of the dealership. Ormes got a courtesy call on Thursday morning delivering the news, and he's angry. "Over the past months, they've begged us to buy vehicles, they've begged us to do everything for them and when it came time to do something for the dealers that basically invested everything that they have, they've turned their back on us,"

full article