Monday, May 19, 2008

McCrory's "vanishing" education policy

Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory knows urban North Carolina. He knows about transportation issues. But, as Daily Views pointed out during his successful campaign to be the Republican nominee for governor, Mr. McCrory’s vision needs to expand beyond those things.

In particular, he needs a more credible understanding – and a deeper slate of positions – on public education to be a well-rounded governor.

A puzzling vanishing post about charter school policy on his campaign web site suggests ... well, we don’t know what it suggests except perhaps that Mr. McCrory’s vision for education is ah, still emerging.

Jeff Taylor writes on his Meck Deck blog:

“Under a “More Choices” bullet point on the education policy page was this prescription: “Parents know better than the government what is best for their children. We need to lift the cap on charter schools and provide tax incentives for parents who choose to send their children to non-traditional public schools.”

As Hal noted, this seemed to suggest that McCrory was proposing tax credits or some sort of government benefit for parents who opted for a different brand of public schooling. In the case of CMS, for example, that would presumably extent to its crazy quilt of magnet schools and its school-within-a-school offerings, such as the multiple high schools now housed at Olympic High."


Hmmm. Now you see it now you don't. Did McCrory change his
mind? Was this a strategic flip-flop? Did he take off the charter schools
bit in hopes of appealing to Democrats whose votes he needs?

What do you think?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sounds like another example of a liberal editoral board making a mountain out of a mole hill. Go Mayor Pat!

The Observer Editorial Board said...

One can certainly debate whether this is a mountain or a molehill, but I wouldn't call the bloggers over at johnlocke.org, who first called attention to McCrory's vanishing bullet point, part of any "liberal editorial board." They might be insulted. --p Kevin Siers

Anonymous said...

MayorPatforLife has done well in Charlotte because he has been only the mouthpiece for the Chamber. In Raliegh he will need to stand on his on feet.

He doesn't have any. His purpose is to be elected and upon election will have no more direction than easley, whose sole purpose was a lottery. State government will continue to run amock.

Beverly Purdue is the only choice, unfortunately. I would have preferred Bobby Orr.