The Department of Education needs to be abolished. Government education is freaking terrible, it produces moonbats like hamletresident.

/another take down

1600.00 per inmate...*per month

Just what the State of North Carolina needs.............Bonnie Wheeler, a long time S.C. resident, who sent her own kid to private school and has no background in education, to tell us how to run our public schools! And didn't she blog on this site a few months ago (or was it a letter to the editor) her great delight that the state of Texas was going to REWRITE the history books for their state to comply with their very own "rendition of U.S. History"!

Ms.Jordan....I'm not sure exactly what kind of prison reform Perdue speaks of,I mean,in 1996,the federal gov't. gave 1600.00 per month per inmate in the N.C. prison system.Inmates in N.C. work with D.O.T. saving the state millions in labor costs and I can assure you that the State "milks" plenty of money out of the Dep't. of Corrections(per inmate)from the federal funding.Inmates also work in towns all across N.C. saving money there also.The Dep't. of Corrections has been a "cash cow" for years for the State of N.C.,it's just that most people do NOT know about funding and costs.There are many more things that inmates do that help the D.O.C. more self-sufficient.

As far as Education reform is concerned,the education lottery should go soley to education but we ALL know that the lottery is another cash cow for politicians to use ignorantly for whatever they want.Well,at least the Dems. have because N.C. has been run by the Dems. for some time now.

Whatever the case may be,Bev Perdue isn't totally to blame for any distasteful problems N.C. has.I'm Conservative Republican,as most know,and I can still see that Perdue is not to blame.Easley was absolutely terrible as a Governor and he didn't have it too badly when he took over for Jim Hunt.So,who's to blame?THE VOTERS are to blame inevitably.

What happened to all of the money that the North Carolina Education Lottery was supposed to bring to the schools? I can hardly pay for my gas due to the long line of folks wasting their money on scratch-offs.

OMG! Bonnie, to cut funding for education is ridiculous and unwise. You do want our children to be able to compete globally for employment, knowledge, and survival, don't you? Cutting funding is detrimental in so many ways....one being that highly qualified teachers may look for employment elsewhere...and while I'm sure that there are some drug users among teachers, that's like any other line of employment. You always have a few "bad apples."

Schools back in Boonie's era were teaching what was needed during the industrial age so they could "do more with less." That is not the case today.....the information age puts more knowledge in their hands at a very young age, sometimes before kids are ready emotionally for information.

You guys need to get off the school systems' backs! Be supportive instead of so negative.

Did either one of you teach? And Boonie, don't tell me your kids or grandkids teach...not the same thing....Sunday school either. Bonnie, did you ever teach school?

I didn't think so.

Louis, I agree - expenses must be cut. There was a time when schools opereated on much less money and NC schools were among the best. The problem isn't all money - there are other changes that should be made.

Susie, you know I think that I like many, many other N C citizens are basically worn out with the constant cry baby attitudes of a lot of people employed by our schools, in fact the NCAE is the one (1) largest organized group of voters in the entire nation. Governor Purdue inherited the fiscal

mess from her predecessor, Gov. Easley, while I did not vote for her or for any Democrat, I feel that it is unfair to blame her for everything.

For entirely too long our state government has been the victim of too much influence exerted by the NCAE(NC educators association), almost any one running for office knows that to oppose the associations wishes is a virtual death sentence to their campaign. Many things are wrong, for instance the granting of tenure without some type of qualification other than keeping a low profile for ten years is wrong and very out-dated, and the fact that although truck drivers are required to pass random drug tests, teachers and other school employees are not required to be tested because when it was suggested several years ago the NCAE went beserk and pressured the house members and senators to drop this issue, which they did. I personally know that there is a small but active number of drug users in our school system at this time, if you have any intestinal-fortitude(guts)demand that they all be given a supervised urine test and prove me wrong.

I guess one easy answer to your problem between prisons and teachers is to put more teachers in prison.

quit you belly-aching and do your job, the rest of us are.

louis b long