Wake County Public Schools Nc

Guest Column: School Choice Wins Big in 2011

If someone asked me to describe the single-biggest result of conservative electoral gains in North Carolina over the past two years, my answer would consist of two words: school choice.

Now, I admit that that the most significant legislative achievement of the new General Assembly was the passage of a 2011-13 budget without imposing or extending any tax hikes. It was a bipartisan vote, large enough to override Gov. Bev Perdue’s veto. It will save North Carolina taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars a year and create thousands of new jobs.

But the budget, prudent as it proved to be as a first step towards fiscal sanity, did not fundamentally alter public policy in North Carolina. State government will continue to do virtually everything it used to do, albeit more efficiently.

The Left has alleged otherwise – that education and health care and environmental protection will be decimated – but the Left alleges a lot of things. That doesn’t make them real. The difference between Perdue’s budget proposal and the final budget amounts to roughly two percent of General Fund spending – and less than that when it comes to public schools.

All those claims about “gutting education,” in other words, were a reflection of political theatrics, not fiscal metrics.

The real shift in North Carolina education policy this year came in separate legislation to abolish the statewide cap on charter schools and authorize a new tuition tax credit for families with special-needs students. These school-choice measures will provide tens of thousands of North Carolinians with new educational opportunities while spending tax dollars more wisely. They will also expand the constituency for school choice, making future reforms more likely.

The movement towards choice and competition in North Carolina education didn’t begin during the 2010 session, of course. Charter schools got their start in 1996. Also during the 1990s, privately funded scholarship programs in Charlotte, Winston-Salem, and other cities demonstrated the promise of parental choice programs aimed at low-income and special-needs populations.

More recently, school districts such as Winston-Salem/Forsyth and Cumberland County adopted enrollment policies that gave parents more ability to choose which public schools their students would attend. No longer would central-office staff make the decision on their own, based on expediency or social-engineering schemes.

iMoms Fight Childhood Obesity | CaryCitizen

Cary, NC – The iMom group of Western Wake recently discussed strategies to combat the rising tide of obesity in North Carolina.

Laura Aiken from WakeMed represents Advocates for Health in Action – a group that tries to educate parents and schools about healthy policies that can get kids more active and eating better with the goal to achieve a healthy lifestyle.

Some alarming statistics

For the first time in 2 centuries, the current generation in America may have a shorter life span than their parents due to the rise in childhood obesity. If that doesn’t make you get off the coach and put away the potato chips, I don’t know what will!

Good Ideas for a Healthier Lifestyle

Laura mentioned a few of her top ideas for improving the lifestyles of children:

Better Food in School

Marilyn Moody, from the Wake County Public Schools spoke about a program called GAP which certifies farms to provide local produce to Wake County schools, ensuring that the farm practices meet with guidelines for food safety. Last year 14 different crops were provided to our schools from these farms.

Of course, fresh is not the cheaper option. Anyone who does the family shopping can attest to that. To aid with the cost, Wake County has partnered with the Department of Defense, which makes huge buys in fresh produce for the U.S. Army. An initiative was started in 1997 called “Farm to School” to bring these products to the schools. It is a win-win situation: the farms gain a new market for their produce and the schools get fresh product they wouldn’t have otherwise. By piggy-backing with the DOD, the schools were able to hold down costs of fresher foods.

About iMom

iMom meetings are open to anyone that is interested in services for children. The Western Wake iMOM group meets once a month on Fridays from 9-11 at the Cary Chamber on Academy Street. This was the final meeting for this school year.

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