Too little too late for Duke in Lacrosse rape case

Long after the Duke Lacrosse rape case has been settled, Duke University President Richard Brodhead now offers a feeble apology for not supporting the three accused students before the investigation proved they were not guilty. He now wants to capitalize on the situation and try to save face by telling the world that accused defendants should not be prejudged before evidence has shown guilt or innocence no matter how a situation appears.

He now says "by not repeating the need for the presumption of innocence equally vigorously at all key moments, we may have helped create the impression that the university did not care about its students. This was not the case, and I regret it as well." He also stated "some faculty made statements that were 'ill-judged and divisive' and Duke should have done more to underscore that these were the beliefs of individuals, not the university as a whole.

Reporters, bloggers and media representatives have long said that the university faculty and officials were wrong to not back the accused students during their time of need. Now that the dust has settled, it would seem to be only a face saving measure on the part of the university to come forth with such a statement as Brodhead has made and the damage to the school's reputation will take years to recover, if it ever will.

The reality now is that university officials and faculty failed to follow principles that should have mattered most. The university has lost three outstanding students and the reputation of those accused has been damaged forever when the outcome could have been so much better...

News & Observer
September 30, 2007
Jane Stancill and Anne Blythe, Staff Writers

Duke leader apologizes in lacrosse case

DURHAM - Duke University President Richard Brodhead apologized Saturday for the school's lack of full support for the three lacrosse players falsely accused last year of raping an escort service dancer.

It was Brodhead's first public apology for the university's handling of the case, which drew worldwide media attention.

Brodhead said his own biggest regret was "our failure to reach out to the lacrosse players and their families in this time of extraordinary peril. Given the complexities of this case, getting the communication right would never have been easy. But the fact is that we did not get it right, causing the families to feel abandoned when they were most in need of support. This was a mistake. I take responsibility for it, and I apologize."

He added that some faculty made statements that were "ill-judged and divisive" and Duke should have done more to underscore that these were the beliefs of individuals, not the university as a whole.

And, he said, by deferring to the criminal justice system and "not repeating the need for the presumption of innocence equally vigorously at all key moments, we may have helped create the impression that the university did not care about its students. This was not the case, and I regret it as well."

Brodhead, who did not take questions, made his remarks during a speech at the Duke Law School. He was there as part of a two-day conference focused on the lacrosse case and how it was reported by the media.

"If there's one lesson the world should take from the Duke lacrosse case," Brodhead said, "it's the danger of prejudgment and our need to defend against it at every turn." Read more...

Internet access improving in NC

Access to the internet has become a vital resource for education and helping the state population connect to information needed for everyday living. This is a vital component to help NC citizens increase knowledge required to compete in the 21st century and is emerging as an infrastructure component that is as vital to economic health and prosperity as much as roads, water, sewer and electricity and telecommunications connectivity.

"Increasing statewide access to broadband Internet service enhances economic progress by allowing citizens to have greater access to health care information, education and job-training opportunities and support for small businesses and entrepreneurs," reports Oppie Jordan, economic developer for the Carolinas Gateway Partnership and chairwoman of the e-NC Authority governing commission.

Internet connectivity has increased only 2 percent from the previous study. A new e-NC report shows the percent of area households having the ability to access broadband Internet this year versus last year: Edgecombe, 77.4 percent, up from 75.05 percent; Nash, 76.32 percent, up from 74.17 percent; Wilson, 90.8 percent, up from 87.51 percent; and Halifax, 80.64 percent, up from 77.18 percent.

Read the entire report...

Rocky Mount Telegram
September 20, 2007
Tom Murphy

High-speed Net access inches up

A state report released by the e-NC Authority shows that availability of broadband Internet access in North Carolina is increasing at a nominal rate.

"High-Speed Internet Access in North Carolina: A 100 County Report" reveals that 83.54 percent of North Carolina households have access to broadband Internet services. This is an increase of less than 2 percent from the previous year, said Oppie Jordan, economic developer for the Carolinas Gateway Partnership and chairwoman of the e-NC Authority governing commission. The e-NC Authority's headquarters are located in Raleigh.

"Counties that lack high-speed connectivity are often at a crucial disadvantage in terms of opportunity and prosperity," Jordan said. "I have a hard time believing that the citizens of our state would accept only 83.54 percent of homes having access to broadband Internet services."

Jordan said North Carolina is in the midst of a transformation toward a 21st century, knowledge-based economy.

"Increasing statewide access to broadband Internet enhances economic progress by allowing citizens to have greater access to health care information, education and job-training opportunities and support for small businesses and entrepreneurs," she said.

The e-NC report shows the percent of area households that have the ability to access a broadband Internet connection this year versus last year: Edgecombe, 77.4 percent, up from 75.05 percent; Nash, 76.32 percent, up from 74.17 percent; Wilson, 90.8 percent, up from 87.51 percent; and Halifax, 80.64 percent, up from 77.18 percent.

Major deployment of broadband Internet access in urban communities is nearly done, Jane Patterson, executive director of e-NC Authority, said in the report.

"What we are now trying to do is push for broadband expansion into the most under served areas, which are often rural and economically disadvantaged," Patterson said. "Dial-up won't cut it anymore – plain and simple.

"If broadband connectivity levels in this many homes, schools and businesses is so inadequate, we can't expect companies to thrive and remain competitive, or that our rural children will have a chance to learn the latest technologies and Web-based applications."

Now emerging as infrastructure that is as vital to economic health and prosperity as roads, water, sewer and electricity, advanced telecommunications connectivity, rarely extends into communities that are sparsely populated, Jordan said.

The e-NC Authority is distributing $1.21 million as matching incentive grants for expansion of high-speed Internet service into communities with the lowest levels of connectivity – Jones, Warren, Gates and Greene counties, she said. Original article...

Wake County Schools - Handling the Growth

While much of the debate this year has been on whether to move to year-round schools and require compliance by all parents and students, the Wake County School Board doesn't seem to be considering all the options. Perhaps this reflects the likelihood that most, if not all, of the school board members are from private or business environments where solutions are brought about by throwing more money at problems without being creative to find alternative solutions.

Here are a couple of possibilities the county might consider that could make a big difference in using existing schools and resources that haven't seen the light of day in public discussions.

In the world of manufacturing, factory sites have long been operated in multiple shift arrangements in order to get more out of fixed assets and resources. Many operate on two or three shift arrangements to use the existing facilities and investment without building more brick and mortar structures. This has always been an alternative when production demands grow and simply adding more manpower and using good management allows companies to be much more productive and spread costs over more product. It may not suit all families for schools to operate on two shifts but such an arrangement would certainly allow the physical resources to be more effectively used by adding more teachers and staff and scheduling sessions to allow students be accommodated when parents might work on corresponding shifts in businesses, etc. Many businesses operate with two shifts and surely the second shift parents would consider having heir children attend school on the same shift when they work.

Another area where costs could be addressed would be to eliminate busing students all over the county simply to achieve racial and socio-economic balance. The cost to provide cross county busing to provide "better education for all" is a worn out idea and costs the county and state a fortune in additional fuel and driver costs and there is also a possibility that the number of buses needed might even be reduced if this wasteful process were eliminated. Students might even be able to get up at reasonable times and have more time with their families. Cross county busing gets much more costly each time the cost of fuel increases and this problem will not go away in our lifetime.

Perhaps if more citizens were participating in producing creative solutions for schools and growth there would be more cost effective ways to provide more capacity and handle some of the growth. As this issue grows to affect more areas in the state no doubt there will be more ideas generated and solutions found.

JP

Guns on campus - a really bad idea

Allowing students (and all state citizens) to have the "right" to carry weapons is a really stupid idea. A recent AP article discusses a current Utah law that allows citizens to bear arms and allows students to legally carry concealed weapons on campus in the name of "being prepared".

How stupid can you get? What can the legislators in Utah be thinking when they pass a law providing the means to have guns readily available in any volatile situation that comes along?

Yes, having a concealed weapon might let some individuals feel safer, and, yes, there is a possibility that the death toll might have been lower in the recent Virginia Tech massacre if students or teachers had been carrying firearms. But allowing students and all other citizens to carry weapons, concealed or otherwise, anywhere in society provides the opportunity for shootings to break out anytime a hostile situation arises and the toll could be far greater as deaths add up over time.

There are no easy answers to address seemingly random shooting incidents in our society but providing the means to have guns on hand at all times would greatly increase the risk of having more shootings on a smaller scale when so many situations occur where tempers flare and individuals try to take things into their own hands.

News and Observer
April 28, 2007
Brock Vergakis, The Associated Press

In Utah alone, law allows guns on campus

SALT LAKE CITY - Brent Tenney says he feels pretty safe when he goes to class at the University of Utah, but he takes no chances. He brings a loaded 9 mm semiautomatic with him every day.

"It's not that I run around scared all day long, but if something happens to me, I do want to be prepared," said the 24-year-old, who has a concealed-weapons permit and takes the handgun everywhere but church.

After the massacre at Virginia Tech that left 33 dead, some have suggested the carnage might have been lower if a student or professor with a gun had stepped in.

As states and colleges across the country review their gun policies in light of the tragedy, many in Utah are proud to have the nation's only state law that expressly allows the carrying of concealed weapons at public colleges. Read more...

Cheating with technology

While most students work hard for their grades cheating continues to be popular for some. An emerging problem with using iPods to cheat is causing some schools to ban digital players because of potential as another tool for cheating.


Read the following AP commentary...

Updated: 7:25 a.m. ET April 27, 2007

MERIDIAN, Idaho - Banning baseball caps during tests was obvious — students were writing the answers under the brim.

Then, schools started banning cell phones, realizing students could text message the answers to each other.

Now, schools across the country are targeting digital media players as a potential cheating device.

Free tuition for the favored - more on unethical practices

In 2003 a tuition grant clause was slipped into the state budget favoring certain students by granting free tuition at UNC campuses for graduates of the N.C. School of Science and Mathematics, the prestigious state boarding school in Durham. The provision was slipped in during budget planning by a Senator chairing the appropriations committee.

Sen. Kay Hagan, a Greensboro Democrat, is the driving force behind the tuition grant. She used her influence as chairwoman of an appropriations committee to insert the grant into the budget.

The provision is unfair to the state's other high-achieving high school graduates. This is yet another example of unethical practices in the legislative process that representatives use to slip in bills favoring selected groups and is both unethical and a conflict of interest. Read the entire news release...

News and Observer
April 6, 2007
Jane Stancill and Lynn Bonner, Staff Writers

Free tuition facing scrutiny
Law's origins, premise under fire

DURHAM - For the third time, opponents are lining up against a law that grants free tuition at UNC campuses for graduates of the N.C. School of Science and Mathematics, the prestigious state boarding school in Durham.

This time, the deal may get the scrutiny that opponents say it deserves. A bipartisan bill in the state House seeks to repeal a law that has granted free tuition to 577 students since 2004 at a cost of nearly $1.9 million. Once fully phased in, it will cost taxpayers more than $2.7 million. Read more...

UNC system will have to accomodate 300,000 by 2017

North Carolina's university system must undergo massive planning to accommodate up to 300,000 students by the year 2017. In the next ten years the annual high school graduation rate is expected to increase by 30,000 students, and almost 22,000 of those will be Latino students.

New programs and methods must be implemented to allow the university system to be flexible and accommodate the growth. Read more from the news release from today with remarks from UNC President Erskine Bowles...

News and Observer
March 15, 2007
Jane Stancill, Staff Writer

UNC system plans for growth

GREENVILLE - By 2017, the number of students enrolled in North Carolina’s public universities could reach nearly 300,000, with no majority race among high school graduates by then.

The future UNC system will be substantially bigger and more diverse, according to projections presented today to the UNC Board of Governors.

The trends are startling. During the next decade, the number of annual high school graduates in North Carolina is expected to grow by 30,000 — and almost 22,000 of those are Latino students.

“That will change this university,” said UNC President Erskine Bowles. Read more...

States spending billions on pre-kindergarten education

The trend is increasing to find ways to start educating children before the kindergarten age.

A report being released Wednesday finds "states spent at least $3.3 billion last year on pre-kindergarten. That doesn't include money from federal and local governments, which contribute to the state programs. The state funding is up from $2.8 billion in 2005, according to the report by the National Institute for Early Education Research at New Jersey's Rutgers University."

The trend is increasing to find ways to start educating children before the kindergarten age.

CNN.com
March 14, 2007
Associated Press

States stress benefits of pre-kindergarten programs

ARLINGTON, Virginia (AP) -- Yasmine Carrizo has trouble pinpointing exactly what she likes best about pre-kindergarten at Carlin Springs Elementary.

"I like the toys, and playing house, and book time, and sleep-over (nap) time," the wide-eyed 4-year-old says one morning as she colors with markers at a table just her size.

Barely taking a breath, Yasmine starts to list additional favorites when she gets a cue from her teacher. "Gotta go," she tells a visitor, dashing off with pigtails bobbing to join her friends at the classroom door. "It's library time!"

It's not hard to find such enthusiasm at the cheerful school, one of several hundred in Virginia that offer state-funded preschool to low-income 4-year-olds.

Nationwide, children typically enter school at around age 5, when they're ready for kindergarten. But research highlighting the importance of early learning is prompting more and more states to add pre-kindergarten programs. Read more...

Teaching from Afghanistan

When you feel like your commute to work is too long and your job is too demanding, think of this Mount Olive College professor. While deployed in the military he rises early to teach computer science to his North Carolina students at a distance of 7,100 miles. He is serving in Afghanistan...

News and Observer
March 12, 2007
Jane Stancill, Staff Writer

Deployed professor teaches from Afghanistan
Stays on duty at Mount Olive

In recent months, Ted Janicki has done most of his teaching late at night or during the dark, still hour around 4 a.m.

That's when the Mount Olive College professor rose early to beat his three roommates to the computer in the cement building where he lives. Janicki, a captain in the Air Force Reserves, has taught computer science to his North Carolina students at a distance of 7,100 miles. He is serving in Afghanistan.

He never met his American students, and some of them weren't even sure how to pronounce his name. While they slept, Janicki graded their tests or tapped out e-mails about their assignments. Read more...

Reslice the pie says Easley

Another twist in Governor Easley's budget has bubbled to the surface. Now he wants to "reslice" the lottery pie to direct more funds toward four year old education. Easley frequently wants to stir the pot if he can tie the topic to "his" education plans but this one would spark another debate about how lottery funds are used. In the midst of raging discussions about changing school terms and build new school sites the governor wants to take funds away from the urgent need for building.

From the news release...

News and Observer
March 2, 2007
J. Andrew Curliss, Staff Writer

Reslice lottery pie, says Easley
Reopening a debate, the governor thinks more money should go to his signature preschool

Gov. Mike Easley is proposing a reordering of what North Carolina's new lottery pays for, spending less on school construction and college scholarships and more on his signature program for pre-schoolers.

Easley, a Democrat, included the spending changes in his budget proposal for the next fiscal year. His plan is uncertain, however, because it reopens the long debate over how lottery money should be used. Legislators in 2005 fought long and often over how to divvy the proceeds and decided by slim votes to create the games of chance. Read more...

Governor Easley wants to take school construction money

Governor Easley now wants to take lottery funds needed for school construction and divert it to his pet pre-school program, More at Four.

Republican state senate leader Phil Berger (R-District 26) says “North Carolina’s lottery should not become a slush fund for gubernatorial pet projects. Recent studies have shown that students in More at Four and Smart Start are not showing the success in improving long term academic performance. It makes no sense to divert much needed education dollars from school construction and scholarships.”

A news article in the March 2, 2007 Chatham County Journal has this to say about the Governor's proposal...

Chatham Journal Weekly
March 2, 2007

Govenor Easley wants lottery money diverted

Raleigh, NC - One year after the passage of North Carolina’s lottery, Governor Easley wants to reduce the percentage of lottery proceeds going to education. Now he has announced plans to redirect lottery funds for school construction and need based scholarships to his pet pre-school program, More at Four. School construction statewide would receive $43 million less than anticipated and, although no lottery scholarships have been handed out yet, $10 million would be diverted from the scholarship program. Read more...

Profiting from the taxpayers pocket

SAS leader Jim Goodnight says he will give profits made on a Wake County land sale back to taxpayers. Many think the land sale hints that there was "insider knowledge" that the Wake County school board would buy the land for a new school on the site. Interestingly enough Goodnight publicly advocated supporting the record $970 million school construction bond issue approved by voters in November and even asked all of his company employees to support the bond issue.

So... just how do you give profits back to taxpayers? In reality none of us will ever get a cent from Mr. Goodnight if he pulls this off. He might make a donation to some community cause or build another soccer field or take some other step to get a big tax break but taxpayers won't get anything.

Read the complete article...

News and Observer
February 23, 2007
Michael Biesecker, Staff Writer

Goodnight plans to donate profit
Any profit from a land sale to Wake schools would go to taxpayers

RALEIGH - Software mogul Jim Goodnight will return to taxpayers whatever profit he might gain from a proposed $8.7 million land deal with Wake County, according to his development partner.

Tim Smith, president of Preston Development Co., said Thursday that Goodnight had no direct knowledge of the proposed sale of 108.4 acres of land off Humie Olive Road in Apex for a new high school and middle school.

Apex Olive LLC, a company in which Goodnight is a financial backer, bought the land April 28 for $3.25 million. The current county tax value of the undeveloped tract, which had previously been owned by a local family for decades, is $794,180.

The Wake County school board voted Feb. 6 to buy the land for $8.7 million -- a 168 percent jump from what was paid for the tract just 10 months ago. The purchase will not be final until it is approved by the Wake County Board of Commissioners, which is expected to take up the issue in April. Read more...

Neigborhood schools - its about time...

It's about time we started the process to let children attend school in or near they own neighborhoods. Many years ago there was a need to start busing to help bring good quality education to all children. But much of the problem has been reduced by changes in neighborhood mix and generally improving the effort to provide a good education to all students so the idea of busing children long distances purely to mix the classes and provide better classes for poor or less fortunate students is not the crisis it used to be.

School budgets now include a huge line item just for fuel and transportation expenses that could be substantially reduced by allowing students to attend a school right in their own neighborhood or within a few miles. Many students are forced to get up before daylight just because they are required to ride the bus from their home to a distant school and get home near or after dark much of the year. This is now an outdated forced requirement and could be reduced considerably or eliminated.

If this problem were acknowledged and addressed by our school board members a large part of the transportation budget could be used toward the urgent need to remodel old schools and provide new schools to handle the huge growth in the number of students expected over the next several years. This in turn could help reduce the pressure to issue bonds to fund construction or allow that money to be spread over a longer period of time. If they refuse to address the problem let's vote them out and get new members.

In a December 23rd article in the News and Observer T. Keung Hui (Staff Writer for the paper )said "Frustrated over student reassignments, Garner town leaders have asked their attorney whether they can sue the county school board to keep more Garner children closer to home. "If this lawsuit moves ahead, it's about neighborhood schools," said Garner Mayor Ronnie Williams. "It's about Garner students going to neighborhood schools."

He further notes that the town attorney is researching whether the town could sue the school system, and on what legal grounds. If this can be done it may start a legal process that could help stop the insane practice of making young students spend so much time riding the bus and could let them spend more time actually getting an education and spending quality time with their families.