OPINION
The Chronicle i
Ernest H. Pitt
Publisher Emeritus
1974-2015
617 N. Liberty Street c
336-722-8624 I 41 V
www.wschronicle.com \<vea?<$
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Elaine Pitt Business Manager
Donna Rogers Managing Editor
wali D. Pitt Digital Manager
Our Mission
The Chronicle is dedicated to serving the
residents of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County
by giving voice to the voiceless, speaking truth
to power, standing for integrity and
encouraging open communication and
lively debate throughout the community.
Transforming
education takes
a 21st century
village united
Winston-Salem State University (WSSU) held a
community roundtable on Friday, April 15. This was
the first event of its kind WSSU has held.
The university said "the Transforming Education
Community Roundtable will be an annual forum
that brings together broad and diverse community
representatives and stakeholders to advance fresh
thinking and bold ideas designed to enhance public
education in our community.
The 2016 Roundtable featured three conversa
tions exploring the state of public education in
North Carolina, creating cultures of curiosity, and
thriving schools, thriving societies.
In discussing the state
of public schools in North
Carolina, various concepts
came up.
One panelist , said:
"You cannot separate edu
cation from what's going
on jn our society."
What's going on in our
society? In North
Carolina, it is repression
anu ic^icwiuh.
In Winston-Salem, 12 inner-city schools have
been labeled low performing based on test scores.
Some panelists suggested a change in education
operations could be the problem. Under segregation,
black students and black teachers worked together.
Now, the majority of teachers are white, middle
class women who probably don't understand how to
relate to the mostly minority students in those
schools. They abdicate trying to understand and .
send minority students straight to the administrative
offices.
According to N,C. Department of Public
Instruction data, suspensions among black students
in the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools sys
tem nearly quadrupled the number among white stu
dents in 2014-2015, despite the fact that black stu
dents make up less than 30 percent of total enroll
ment.
What's happening in our society? Minorities are
being sent to prison at alarming rates.
Sixty percent of U.S. prisoners are either
African-American or Latino, President Obama has
said. "About one in every 35 African-American
men, one in every 88 Latino men is serving time
right now," the president said. "Among white men,
that number is one in 214."
It is widely known that third-grade reading
scores help officials decide on the number of prisons
needed in the United States.
What's happening m our society? North Carolina
lawmakers who have not 'seen public education in
action for years are making laws that tear into the
heart of public education, where most minority chil
dren can be found, while bolstering non-public
schools, where only a small percentage of minority
students can be found.
. One black charter school official in Winston
Salem says the N.C. law on charter schools added a
section that makes charter schools that accept federal
funds on par with public school systems and decrees that
those schools have to be held to the same standards as
public schools. Her school falls under that jurisdiction.
Meanwhile, North Carolina lawmakers are making
? laws that restrict the voting rights of citizens. Mostly
minorities are affected.
Facilitators and panelists talked about systems and
how various systems in the lives of children need to work
together. Those systems include family, community, faith
institutions and education.
'This is a village. Our children have to travel across
multiple systems," one panelist said.
Panelists and facilitators concluded that ways have to
be found to unite the systems even while society is trying
to tear the systems apart.
The 21st century village cannot afford not to.
Note: Managing Editor Donna Rogers was a panelist
on a roundtable session.
1 *
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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Shame on GOP
leaders in House
for missing U.S.
budget deadline
To the Editor:
The Republican Leadership in the
House have chosen the route of inac
?tion and failed to present a 2017
budget for Congress [by the April 15
budget deadline] to debate and con
sider. But it is more alarming that
Speaker [Paul]Ryan's 'Road to Ruin'
proposed cuts
that were not
deep enough for
a majority of his
party to agree
on. His proposal
to end the
Medicare guar
antee and exe
cute $6.5 trillion
in cuts demon
s t r a t e s
n nraccinnnl
Rep. Butterfield
v^vugivoaiuuoi
Republicans' disdain for the social
safety net that so many Americans
depend on.
The budget is supposed to pro
vide direction on how we can plan to
fund the federal government in the
upcoming year, but the missed dead
line will make it that much harder for
a plan to be vetted, debated, and
decided on by Congress. We will
continue to fight for a budget that
reflects the values of the American
people and one that will emphasize
our long-standing comnlitment to
eradicating poverty in America by
increasing economic opportunities
through investments in education,
infrastructure, affordable housing,
small business, and job training. We
must protect and strengthen the social
safety net, which will stop millions of
families from sinking deeper into
poverty.
U.S. Rep. G. K. Butterfield (NC
01)
Chairman, Congressional Black
Caucus
Washington, D.C.
McCrory's effort
to change HB 2
is troubling
and a trick
To the Editor:
The Governor's half-hearted
effort to change some pieces of Hate
Bill 2 he signed [March 23] is trou
bling.
And a trick. He said he wants
the same extremists in the legislature
who rammed through a law that
expressly discriminates against
transgendered citizens of North
Carolina, and snatches the right to
sue in State Courts for all protected
classes, to come back to Raleigh and
make some changes in the law.
What his executive order tries to
restore - it's unclear how much
power the Governor's order really
has - are rights and liberties that
should have never been removed.
His suggested changes leaves Hate
Bill 2 a backward, race-based, class
based homophobic bill that hurts the
working poor, racial minorities and
the LGBTQ community.
The bill was bad when it was
written. It was bad when the
Governor signed it with no condi
tions. And it is still bad with the
Governor's new conditions.
We stand on our moral values of
justice and love. We stand on our
belief that this
bill, no matter
how much lip
stick Governor
McCrory tries to
slap on it, repre
sents the race
class-homopho
bic politics of
Jesse Helms
reincarnated.
Hate Bill 2
is about politics
Rev. Barber
not bathrooms. Repeal it! That's the
right thing for the Governor to do.
Like his refusal to expand
Medicaid. Like.-his budget that hurts
teachers and public education. Like
his Voter Suppression Bill, which
will be overturned in the courts.
Like his support for Amendment
One. The Governor should never
have signed Hate Bill 2 in the first
place.
His troubling actions yesterday
mean that local jurisdictions are still
barred from requiring contractors to
pay employees living wages, sick
leave, vacation leave and minority
set asides.
We in the NAACP Forward
Together Movement call on people
and businesses of conscience ? keep
the pressure on. NO DISCRIMINA
TION. NO RACISM. NO CLAS
SISM. SAY NO to HATE. IN
FULL OR IN PART. YESTERDAY.
TODAY. TOMORROW!
Pray for the Governor. Protest
the Governor and his colleagues
who passed Hate Bill 2. Demand
they do the right thing. Repent,
repeal, and resist extremism.
Adjusting discrimination is not
enough; only abolition is sufficient!
Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II
President the NC NAACP
Convener of Forward Together
Moral Monday Movement
Durham
City website adds
'cookies' to better
serve visitors to
site
To the Editor:
The privacy policy.for the city's
website - http://www.cityofws.org/ -
has been revised to allow the web
site to place "cookies" on visitors'
computers and mobile devices for
future reference.
Placing cookies will allow the
city to better serve visitors who
accept cook
ies. For 11
example, the g "
city will be 1^1
able to send
a digital ad
DnOllt lpof
SSSi WinsMHem
or mobile
device of a
citizen who
has visited the city's leaf routes
page.
"Cookies" are randomly gener
ated tags that remember which pages
the visitor viewed. Cookies do not
contain personally identifiable infor
mation and do not compromise the
user's privacy or security. Cookies
can be readily refused or deleted
from computers and mobile devices
using a number of methods. Web
browser "Help" files show how to
block or delete cookies.
The complete privacy policy is
posted on the city's website. It can
be accessed through the "Privacy
Statement" link at the bottom of
every page.
City of Winston-Salem
Marketing and Communications
Department
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