State's belt-tightening a selective policy

Editorial by Rocky Mount Telegram, August 21, 2013.

For all of his pledges to tighten belts in his quest to fix a broken state government, Gov. Pat McCrory so far has a rather selective record.

State teachers haven’t had a pay increase in five years. Meanwhile, class sizes are getting larger, and they have fewer assistants to help them manage their responsibilities. North Carolina’s teacher salaries rank 46th in the nation.

On the other hand, two twentysomethings who worked for a short while in McCrory’s 2012 campaign landed a couple of pretty sweet jobs this year in the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services. They each make $85,000 or more – increases of more than 30 percent over what they made when they worked in the governor’s office.

It takes a teacher in North Carolina 15 years to reach a base salary of $40,000.

The number of employess in state government who can be hired and fired “at will” has more than tripled – from 400 in 2011 to 1,500 today. The Republican-led N.C. General Assembly increased the number to 1,200 in 2012, then added 300 more this year at McCrory’s request.

The “at-will” status makes those employees exempt from state personnel laws, which would require just cause for a dismissal. Anyone fired from an “at will” position has no appeals avenue. The change gives the governor the power to fire more employees for any reason and choose the people he wants to replace them.

None of these changes strike us as the mark of a state trying to improve education or reward hard-working employees. Unless, of course, you’re a bright young veteran of McCrory’s campaign staff.