A rhetorical question, to be sure. Still, given the flood of news coming out of North Carolina over the last few years, it’s certainly worth gathering it together, scratching one’s noggin, and muttering, “Hmmmmm!”
Onwards….
TOXIC
Care must taken to define the subject in order to reach a reasonable conclusion: for example, basing a definition upon the fringe personalities contained within the states would reveal most of the country as being toxic, as we’d find Palin from AK, Bachmann from MN, Walker from WI, Cruz from TX, and Warren from MA as just a few examples which would only enrage perhaps even the moderates. As entertaining as I’d personally find this approach to be, it must be abandoned.
So a definition of “toxic”, designed to take the topic seriously, should be rather more objective and well-reasoned: I suggest an environment, enforced by the political powers-that-be, in which the youth in that jurisdiction are receiving educational and casual instruction which will result in adults deficient in knowledge of how the world works, and a defect when it comes to competition with other young adults.
SCIENCE
In our modern world, Science, the study of reality, has become the substratum upon we have built the institutions which render modern life a reality: vaccines, agricultural techniques, and telecommunications are just three of the technologies that are the result of the such scientific fields as quantum mechanics, evolutionary biology, and genetics. Science is composed of, among other things, two concrete concepts: the process it uses to formulate hypotheses and test same; and the store of scientific facts, always contingent, upon which hypotheses are reasonably built and assessed. Less tangible aspects include the creativity which gives the scientist insight and, in some cases, an awe commonly associated with those who study the divine.
In our context, the question is how is Science treated in the state by the powers that be? Is it a useful, trusted source of information concerning reality? Or is it ignored, cherry-picked, and even manipulated to provide answers acceptable to those asking the questions?
SCHOOLS
These are the institutions we use to convey the foundations of knowledge, and, later, science to our offspring. These are the key institutions, from kindergarten to the production of PhD-level adults. It is these people who will ultimately farm the land, innovate the new medicines, and create the new technologies which we’ll learn to hold dear. If the institutions of schooling are not sound, then their output will not be sound.
All that said, school evaluation is difficult. Even those who compile relevant statistics ask they not be used to rank schools and states because of influencing factors: local affluence, environment, and teacher pay are just some of the factors which may interfere with a fair evaluation of an education system. Evaluation of school performance, and possibly more important, evaluation of the support of a school system can be a tricky subject.
So statistics must be approached with caution. Nationwide comparisons are nearly non-existent, so one must carefully select how one evaluates data.
GOVERNMENT
Government must be on the most solid of grounds, as it provides the rules, enforcement of the rules, and the glue to hold together a sometimes divisive society, providing help where needed against the inimical forces of Nature. This calls for honor, ethics, integrity, and ultimately the proper utilization of the results of science.
HOW DOES NORTH CAROLINA STACK UP?
SCHOOLS
As noted, achievement is hard to meaningfully measure. The State Board of Education claims
North Carolina’s…
…four-year high school graduation rate is 83.9 percent, the highest in state history.…Career and Technical Education completers’ graduation rate is 94 percent.…annual dropout rate is 2.45 percent, the lowest in history.
North Carolina public schools are»Among the top 11 participating education systems in theworld for 4th & 8th grade math scores on the Trendsin International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS)»16thin the percentage of seniors who took atleast 1 Advanced Placement exam in high school»14th in the percentage of seniors scoring 3 or higheron Advanced Placement exams in high school»18th in 4th grade math, according to the NationalAssessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)»29th in 4th grade reading, according to NAEP»23rd in 8th grade math, according to NAEP»37th in 8th grade reading, according to NAEP»Among the bottom 10 states in per pupil funding»46th in teacher pay
Another measure of schooling in the K-12 system is the salaries of teachers, and at first blush it doesn’t look good. NPR contributes this report on the sudden fall in salaries:
No state has seen a more dramatic decrease in teacher salary rankings in the past 10 years, and some of the other changes in public education are unprecedented. The state is being watched closely by education policymakers across the country, and teachers are suing the state.
Terry Stoops directs education studies at the conservative John Locke Foundation, a Raleigh, N.C.-based think tank.
“They did it all at once,” Stoops says. “They don’t get style points for it, but the number of reforms that were passed received some awe from some of my colleagues in other states that said ‘I can’t believe that North Carolina was able to do all that in one year.’ And in particular, the elimination of the master’s degree supplement.”
So conservatives are pleased, but then they’ve conducted a war on teachers and their unions for as far back as I can recall; no doubt they may have started with good reason, but one must be careful with an institution this important. Especially disturbing is elimination of the master’s degree supplement: so you improve what you can offer to your students, and you don’t get rewarded for it?
How do teachers in North Carolina feel? Also from the npr.org report:
“Morale is at the bottom of the barrel right now throughout this state,” [Rodney Ellis, president of the North Carolina Association of Educators] says. “Teachers are really questioning why they want to teach, why they want to teach here in North Carolina. They have to take care of their own families, and it’s difficult to do that when our salaries are as low as they are. We’ve got educators who right now qualify for government assistance.”
I can attest, from personal contacts, that this appears to be a true statement.
The local ABC affiliate WTVD provides the following truly disheartening summary:
Among the study’s findings, North Carolina ranked 51st in ten-year change in teacher salary; 48th in public school funding per student; 47th in median annual salary; 43rd in teachers’ wage disparity; and 40th in safest schools.
Wallethub provides similarly dismal data with North Carolina in plumb last. Starting salaries do little better, although it’s not clear if the data has been adjusted for cost of living.
From personal report, teaching assistant positions are also under attack, which, if successful, would leave teachers with that much more to do. This can also be seen in the above chart.
On top of the North Carolina-specific ills, the teachers must also put up with the nation-wide controversy of testing, as described in this recent New York Times article. I hesitate to further pursue this topic in a post on North Carolina, so let me be brief, with a reference to a teacher’s viewpoint in Oklahoma (I am assured by teachers in North Carolina and Minnesota that the viewpoint applies nationwide):
For most of us parents, the first impression that we have of school is that it is a warm, welcoming place. It’s because that first impression comes from viewing the Kindergarten class on an occasional basis when our children first start school.
And for most of us, that impression continues on into the middle school years.
But for most of the teachers and administrators today, the elementary school turns into a hostile workplace during the Spring testing season.
The balance of the above link is worth a read.
And what of the college level schools? The previous NPR report asserts without documentation:
But bigger problems loom for the future: Freshman enrollment in the state universities’ education schools is down between 20 and 40 percent.
Never mind the recently revealed athletics scandal at North Carolina – Chapel Hill, it’s really small beans. If prospective students perceive your college level schools of education as undesirable, what does that say about the state as a whole?
GOVERNMENT
One of the keys to a placid society is the perception that fairness is at the foundation of the society; those who feel unfairly treated do not have as much of a stake in the continuance of society as constructed; those who construct such societies then must fear the fell end of their efforts.
SCIENCE & GOVERNMENT
North Carolina has become infamous, at least in science circles, for its outlawing of ‘climate change’. Scott Huler at the Scientific American blog Plugged In provides a useful interpretation of the law in question:
That is, the meter or so of sea level rise predicted for the NC Coastal Resources Commission by a state-appointed board of scientists is extremely inconvenient for counties along the coast. So the NC-20 types have decided that we can escape sea level rise – in North Carolina, anyhow – by making it against the law. Or making MEASURING it against the law, anyhow.
Here’s a link to the circulated Replacement House Bill 819. The key language is in section 2, paragraph e, talking about rates of sea level rise: “These rates shall only be determined using historical data, and these data shall be limited to the time period following the year 1900. Rates of seas-level rise may be extrapolated linearly. …” It goes on, but there’s the core: North Carolina legislators have decided that the way to make exponential increases in sea level rise – caused by those inconvenient feedback loops we keep hearing about from scientists – go away is to make it against the law to extrapolate exponential; we can only extrapolate along a line predicted by previous sea level rises.
ABC News provides additional perspective on the personalities involved; suffice it to say a climate change denier with financial ties to projects on the coast of North Carolina is involved. It is … disturbing to see a mix of financial dealings and ideology used to override good sense as provided by the best scientific findings. Suppose the climate change hypothesis is true: what will become of the structures built under government assurances that flooding of the sort that could damage those structures is unlikely to occur?
They may be depending on Federal help in case they get in trouble, using the Federal Government’s National Flood Insurance Act of 1968. This program offers flood insurance to coastal residents in partnership with private insurers; this program exists because otherwise private insurers declined to offer insurance, certainly a red flag. A 2012 New York Times article stated that, at that time, the program was $18 billion in debt, and not expected to ever recover those costs through premiums. Total vulnerable assets insured? $527 billion. The article advocates for the abolition of the program on the grounds that those who wish to live near the coast should bear the costs when we can now predict that, if inputs to the atmosphere continue, that flooding is a near certainty. This is a sensible, even conservative, position to take, since living on the coast is not a necessity of life, merely a preference – and flooding of the coast is now a predictable event.
Unless, of course, you’re North Carolina. Confidence in government is low (roughly 24% in the Federal government, according to this nifty graph at Pew Research); imagine what will happen when the North Carolina government’s projections are found to be wrong, based on obsolete models mandated by the government.
GOVERNMENT FAIRNESS
And is North Carolina fair? Democrats outnumber Republicans roughly 2.6 million to 1.9 million, with 1.7 million unaffiliated, yet 10 of 13 Congressional seats are currently Republican. Perhaps the Independents went Republican in a big way in the last election. Or perhaps not: SCOTUS has rebuffed the North Carolina’s Supreme Court decision that gerrymandering did not take place on the latest redrawing of district lines.
Next is the news of Republican attempts to gerrymander the state even at the local level. This may be a traditional practice, but when the Republican Governor speaks out against these Republican plans, you know something out of the ordinary is being practiced. Rigging election districts to this extent may be considered systemic corruption.
And, finally, there may be nefariousness hidden in the bowels of state government. This report is still in the arena of speculation, but suggests that during the administration of Governor Pat McCrory there have been chronic shortfalls in the registration of new minority voters:
Finding 1: A systematic sharp decline in new voter registrations originating from Public Assistance (PA) programs began on or about January 2013 and continues to this day
Keep in mind, these are merely results from analysis of voter data, and have no legal existence at the moment; but they remain alarming, and the story is fast developing – this update notes that North Carolina’s Department of Health and Human Services may be in violation of Federal law when it comes to helping their clients register to vote. This is all very unsettling.
To reiterate, one of the keys to a placid society is the perception that fairness is at the society’s foundation; those who feel unfairly treated do not have as much of a stake in the continuance of society as constructed; those who construct such societies then must fear the fell end of their efforts. How do North Carolinians feel about their leaders?
(h/t Joan McCarter @ The Daily Kos)
SCIENCE & BUSINESS
If your state is not emphasizing solid science, then any business dependent on science must question whether they can prosper in such an environment. We’ve seen the hostility of NC government to [that] science which their ideology finds unpalatable, but ideology is not the bedrock of our society. Indeed, ideology not rooted in reality is nothing more than chalk waiting to be disintegrated by the waterfall. And NC’s waterfall may be the sudden uprooting of such large businesses as Wells Fargo (it swallowed NC’s Wachovia during the Great Recession) from Charlotte, Bank of America, and BB&T. These large financial corporations are dependent on technology, and technology is built on good science. If they realize they are in a state hostile to science, they can – with some effort – pick up and leave. And the NC legislature can try to make a law banning such moves …
CONCLUSION
Is North Carolina the most toxic state in the union? It is a judgment best left to you, dear readers; for those who have a seat within the polity, who can see the dirty linen underneath the dancing skirts of the high kicking government officials; and for those of us whose domicile is without, where perhaps we see more of the whole without seeing the cracks in the gears of the great machine.
