newsobserver.com projects - Jimmy Love - Comments

Re: Chamber head disses lawmakers

ConMax — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 22:09:34 -0500

Ebert said the state chamber will be proactive in making sure state legislators don’t hurt business owners and in identifying the pro-business candidates during state elections.* Story

Well! That leaves Ebert with 4 communist kids at Chapel Hill for him to identify should they ever protest the AIG bailout again by the Republicans...

Democrats shoot the messenger

PoliticalJunkie — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:42:46 -0500

What goons.

Re: Chamber head disses lawmakers

AgentPierce — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 09:45:58 -0500

The Obama Administration has identified "business" as bad and all business men as greedy Boss Tweed crooks.

If Rep Love (D) wants to distance himself from Obama (and Basnight, Perdue) let him buy ads and do so ..... he won't. He'll just let the N&O run intereference for him.

Re: Costly district split has little support

dawgitall — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 09:38:17 -0400

Johnston County overwhelms Lee and Harnett in everything concerning this district. They will always control the district attorney's office as long as the three are linked together so of course Johnston County would oppose the split. It's time for a break from one to two districts and frankly the judicial district should be split as well.

Re: No Love for requirement

profbam — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 09:55:54 -0400

Pitt County Schools has had the senior project as a graduation requirement for at least 8 years. Two of my three children graduated with this added requirement. It is a total ABJECT WASTE of time. The better part of an entire block in English is spent on this instead of real learning and the students game it every which way they can. Some use a project completed for a different class--History Day competition or Science Fair competition, etc. sometimes from a previous year--some do pitiful minimal projects and others simply fake it. Only the administrators who spend their days writing memos like senior projects. I was asked a couple of times to sit on boards to judge projects and I refused to give my imprimatur to this bogus BS. The students need to focus on writing skills not gaming the system.

Re: Bill: High school projects optional

j1c2kp — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 15:00:15 -0500

"Parents and students critical of the project say it's a waste of time and will cause struggling students to drop out of school."

I have to agree with this statement.

Re: Love: Pay for high school projects

ncpoli — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 11:15:40 -0500

This is nonsense. Char-Meck has been requiring this for years and no one ever complained. So kids will actually have to prove they're capable of coherent thought to graduate... get over it.

Re: Love: Pay for high school projects

tiggermom — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 10:13:58 -0500

Personally, I think the whole idea of senior projects is totally ridiculous. What is the point? It sounds like a lot of work for the students and parents. Let's face it. The parents will have to get involved. I have two grown children. They have finished high school, but I do remember the days of projects. No matter what the teachers say, parents get involved in projects. My question is, "Will this project determine if they graduate?" That is so unfair, if that is the case. If a student keeps his or her grades up, why should they do a project? Projects are just a easy way for teachers to teach. I can't tell you how useless some of the projects were my children had to do b/c a teacher didn't want to teach. As for who pays for it, I agree with Mr. Love. The state should pick up the tab for the projects if they are going to require them. Some of these projects can get expensive. Why not make the project optional for kids who have good grades? Let the ones with the poor grades do the project. My son finished high school with a 4.03 GPA. I would have been very disappointed if he had to do a project to graduate. It is bad enough they have to take mandated end of the year tests to graduate. Why put more stress on the students and parents? My guess is that it will help those who don't test well. I hope I am wrong in my assumption, but it will give them a fighting chance. School boards will do whatever it takes to make sure kids with disabilities graduate. Projects are just another lame way of doing that. I personally would like to see all projects done away with. When you hit college, you have very few projects. Students need to know how to take tests. How about doing a project on how to teach all students to take tests?

Re: Sticker shock on state budget

ryanteaguebeckwith — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 08:36:00 -0400

I think you misunderstand me. The point of the "Morning Round-Up" is to summarize news stories already out there. Here is the original paragraph from Rob's story:

North Carolina is experiencing a 16-year run of activist Democratic governors -- first Jim Hunt and now Easley -- who have pushed to spend more on education. Hunt and Easley have supported efforts to raise teacher salaries to the national average, start and expand pre-school programs such as Smart Start, and keep the University of North Carolina system nationally competitive.

— RTB

Re: Sticker shock on state budget

JayBlair — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 08:16:02 -0400

What you say is that activist Governors led to the budget increases. I think that goes well beyond what Christensen wrote. In his article his reference to activism is in the context of enhancing educational opportunites. Your reference suggests the activism is big spending, I assumed therefore, you had an independent thought on this topic. "Echoing" the use of someone else's phrase and using it to make a different point is what rumor mongers and spin doctors do and it does a disservice to unsuspecting readers.

Re: Sticker shock on state budget

ryanteaguebeckwith — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 07:50:05 -0400

Actually, I was simply echoing Rob Christensen's words. I believe his reference to Easley as an "activist governor" was due to the fact that he's created and expanded programs like Learn and Earn and More at Four.

— RTB

Re: Sticker shock on state budget

JayBlair — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 21:55:39 -0400

mborders: I think you misunderstand my point. Teague wrote that NC's budget is increasing at a faster annual rate by percentage than the average annual percent increase for all states. That is not surprising because NC is in the top ten states for annual percent population growth during that same time period. This has nothing to do with your comment about percent increase of budget in NC versus percent increase of population in NC. States with higher population growth rates are likely to have higher increases in budgets compared with states that do not. So to make such a comparison tells one nothing about whether the increases are too much or not. It is a meaningless tidbit which is misleading.

Finally I think this is the first piece I have ever read that suggested Easley is an "activist Governor". I thought the complaint about easley was that he didn't work enough. Teague should be a little careful in his choice of words.

Re: Sticker shock on state budget

bnartist — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 13:01:56 -0400

The services provided by government such as healthcare, education, non-residential construction, disaster response, are subject to inflation rates significantly higher than those of the elements of the Consumer Price Index and the populations served by government such as the elderly, are growing faster than the growing overall population. Rob's Saturday article didn't even discuss population growth.

Simply adjusting for overall population growth and Consumer Price Index, the rate of increase in the NC State Budget over the past 30 years amounts to just 2% per year. Adjusting for the growth in sub-populations served plus inflation in the services provided would easily account for and probably exceed this growth including the spikes of recent years.

Re: Sticker shock on state budget

mborders — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 11:10:43 -0400

I entered the last comment prematurely... What I wanted to add is:
Since the '01-'02 budget, per capita spending is up 29 percent. This most recent budget is a 20 percent increase in just two years. Population growth is only estimated at 4.2 percent over that same period (last two years).

Re: Sticker shock on state budget

mborders — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 10:50:23 -0400

So what? These newcomers pay taxes, too. It's not as if their growth is geometric; it's arithmetic -- and largely wealthy and educated. This argument is old, Jay.