Barlow Herget is a commentator and host on SGR Today. He has been a commentator on UNC public radio and an instructor in continuing education at Duke University. Herget was a Nieman Fellow ('70) at Harvard University, has worked for the Daily Press of Paragould, Ark., the Detroit Free Press, and the News & Observer of Raleigh. His articles have appeared in The Atlantic, The New York Times and numerous other publications. Have something to say to Barlow? Contact him by email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  

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Why is it so hard to reduce the achievement gap between white and Asian American students and black and Hispanic students?

Living in the South, I hear some of the more extreme answers from those who still don’t accept racial integration.  The arguments are echoes of the 1950s and 1960s civil rights debates.  Blacks were an inferior race, segregationists claimed, and “race mingling” led to ruin.

The arguments today are not as raw or blunt as in the civil rights era.  More politically correct code words often serve as substitutes:  state’s rights, food stamp president, keeping people “in their place,” and learning to “show up for work.”

Such old attitudes are deeply discouraging for those who long for a country of equal rights and meritocracy.  Sadly, the words also signal a retreat to older times and a resignation to do nothing to change the status quo on such challenges as the achievement gap.

Thus, it is more than heartening to read about a long-term study of poor children and the impact of early education on their future prospects.

The study was conducted by the Frank Porter Graham Development Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  It followed the lives of 111 poor children, many of them minorities, from birth to age 30.

The good news is that pre-kindergarten school meant better reading and math scores for the poor children in later school years.

The children were more likely to pursue college, and they were four times more likely to earn a college degree.  Twenty-three percent graduated from college while only 6 percent in the control group received a degree.

There were other measurable benefits.  The early-educated students were less likely to become teenage parents.  They were employed more and remained off public assistance more.

Surprisingly, given the encouraging findings, there was little difference in incomes, and more troubling, criminal behavior did not change when compared to the control group. 

The latter suggest that curriculum improvements might positively affect such negative results.

Another encouraging sign in North Carolina has been reported by Tony Habit, president of the New Schools Project.  His nonprofit’s focus on early college high schools has reduced dramatically the achievement gap among older, high school students.

The message here is one of hope.  The study and the News Schools Project show we can do better.  And we have evidence to prove it. 

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So much for my certainty that Governor Beverly Perdue was going to seek reelection.

Governor Perdue surprised the press, including this journalist, and almost everyone else, when she withdrew from this year’s governor’s race.

No one in the media and none of my political observer sources knew why she stepped down other than the reason she gave to supporters last week.  She said she wanted to devote her energies to education funding without being accused of political motives.

She has been and is a fighter.  But she’s also been a hard-headed realist.  You can see that in her legislative voting record over the years.  She certainly is aware of her constantly low favorability ratings in polls.  I suspect that the decision was hers.  Mostly.

Her determined stand against budget cuts to education will mark her in history.  The greater marker is that she is the first woman elected as North Carolina’s governor.

The political fallout of her decision is heavy.  Democrats will first have to find a strong candidate, and with the exception of Lt. Governor Walter Dalton, the field is lacking in statewide campaign experience, statewide name recognition and talent for raising 10 to 12 million dollars.

Former University of North Carolina President Erskine Bowles is at the top of the lists of many Democratic political bulls.  He would be the Republican’s scariest nightmare.

But Bowles has served his public duty and is wealthy enough not to need the job.  He and his wife Crandall, a former CEO herself, should not be blamed if they choose a less crazy life.

The story of Governor Perdue’s withdrawal appeared first in The Washington Post.  That is a clear clue that President Obama is very interested in the governor’s race.

The President sees North Carolina as a critical win in his own re-election.  He wants someone at the top of the state Democratic ticket strong enough to help him and congressional Democrats in November.  He probably will be involved in helping recruit such a gubernatorial candidate.

Governor Perdue’s decision also throws a wrench into Republican Pat McCrory’s gubernatorial campaign.  The politically attractive former Charlotte mayor announced his intention to seek the office Tuesday.

He now will have to change his campaign strategy and dump all the 30-second attack ads against Governor Perdue.  Given the dramatic change in landscape, he may even face a primary challenge.

Charles Dickens had a phrase for McCrory’s and the Democrats’ dilemma:  “It was the best of times and it was the worst of times.”  So it is. 

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The outlandish radio host Howard Stern talks about all things sexual, but when it comes to his compensation, he says, “I don’t talk about my salary.”

That’s the way many of us feel.  A person’s pay is not a subject for polite conversation.

That is especially the case for executives of charity or nonprofit organizations.  With charities, there is, at least by the public, an expectation of modest salaries because the act of “doing good” is itself part of one’s compensation.

That is the case for the majority of nonprofits in North Carolina, according to the N.C. Center for Nonprofits.  The median salary of chief executives is about $60,000, says the Center.  A quarter of the executives have no company paid medical insurance.

The Center’s Chair Tog Newman of Winston-Salem adds, “The large majority of nonprofit workers are committed to their missions, highly educated and in most cases, underpaid.”

That is why a recent report in the Triangle Business Journal caused some teeth grinding.  The report showed the pay for 10 nonprofit executives in the Triangle, and the salaries were more than generous.

The big winner was William Hudson who made $827,000 in annual salary.  He heads a Durham charity called LC Industries that employs visually impaired workers.  The nonprofit manufactures and distributes mattresses, housewares and paper products, much of them to the military and federal government.

Goodwill Community Foundation pays its executive Dennis McClain $394,000.

These kinds of salaries are not limited to the Triangle.  A Charlotte Observer article in 2009 reported on a Cornelius nonprofit that offered credit counseling gave its executive director John Waskin a $5.1 million payment for his pension fund when the company went broke.

The Observer also noted that nonprofit leaders nationwide on average received a 6 percent raise in 2008 while their counterparts in the private sector took a 9 percent pay cut.  Hudson, for example, made over $700,000 in 2008 and $827,000 in 2010.

As nonprofits, these organizations receive tax breaks that total over $60 billion.  There is a provision in the tax code that allows the IRS to police nonprofit executive pay, but it seldom does.

Rather, the policing falls to the boards of nonprofits.  And too often, those boards are selected because of close ties to the respective nonprofit’s executive.  When those boards do not provide oversight on excessive pay, says Jane Kendall, president of the N.C. Center for Nonprofits, they are not doing their job.

And when the boards do not do their job and the IRS does not question nonprofit status, the only recourse is public shaming.  And that’s a shame. 

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Former Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory will file to run as a Republican for North Carolina governor at the end of this month, January 31.

While she hasn’t announced a date, Governor Beverly Perdue, a Democrat, will file by the end of next month in this leap year, February 29.  That’s the deadline for the filing period.

Both candidates have about $2 million in their campaign accounts.

There is some talk that the governor may not run, but the talk is mostly by Democratic state Sen. Bill Faison from Orange County who wants her job.  Among political observers, Governor Perdue’s campaign is “game on.”  She will seek reelection.

Mr. McCrory will face little if no opposition in the primary.  Like his contemporary, Senator Richard Burr who had the help of Karl Rove, Mr. McCrory enjoys the strong support of the Republican Establishment.

The race is a rematch of the close 2008 contest.  Interestingly, there are important similarities between then and now.

Governor Perdue benefited greatly in 2008 from the surprising Democratic tide that gave Barak Obama North Carolina’s electoral votes.  She will need a similar Obama boost this year.

Pat McCrory still faces the same suspicions from social and religious conservatives.  He’s North Carolina’s Mitt Romney—without the money.  McCrory says the right things as does Romney, but McCrory’s moderate record—raising taxes for light rail, softness on Planned Parenthood—doesn’t excite the meat eaters.

And like 2008, the race probably will be decided by the economy.  The 2008 Wall Street collapse cemented President Obama’s victory, and if the economy continues to improve in 2012, so do Governor Perdue’s chances.

There will be some significant differences, none pleasant, unfortunately.

The rise of the super PAC—political action committees—will pour more money than ever into campaigns, especially for gubernatorial and congressional races.  Thanks to a dumb decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, wealthy corporations and individuals can give unlimited amounts of money to independent PACs.

It’s a farce that these groups are independent.  Witness the super PAC that dumped just in Iowa over $3 million on behalf of Mitt Romney that crippled Newt Gingrich’s campaign.

Which leads to another big difference.  Super PACs, for both sides, are the guys with brass knuckles and baseball bats.  They run the nastiest attack ads, and the 2012 governor’s race will be flooded with such thuggery.

Because the two candidates have been determined early, the final difference, sadly, is that all this sludge will start earlier. 

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When I ran for Raleigh mayor, I was invited to attend a meeting of a Triangle business group that I didn’t know.  I learned it was an association of homosexual business and professional people.

It was 1993, not so long ago.  Yet, Jesse Helms was very much in the U.S. Senate and President Clinton had been roundly denounced for his promise to allow homosexuals in the military.

It was still a time when links to homosexual groups, depending on your opponent, could be political poison.  I was well aware of that.

 As the meeting date neared, I had what is called in the South a “come to Jesus meeting”—with myself.
I thought of all the homosexual and lesbian friends I had.  Some were openly gay and some not so much.  My friends were creative, intelligent, compassionate, and very capable.  Would I turn my back on them?

I went to the meeting, feeling like I would see my visit in a 30-second attack ad afterwards.  The meeting was in the old Ballentine Cafeteria’s, big downstairs meeting room.  It was packed.

I was amazed that so many people had openly declared their sexuality in the capital city of North Carolina.  My short remarks were generously applauded and the guest speaker who followed skewered my opponent.

The meeting for me was exhilarating.  Clearly, even in Raleigh, gay people were standing up for their rights as full and productive members of society.  And here, in the same room where Rotary and Kiwanis and sports clubs met, homosexuality was being recognized not as a deviant mental disease or an unspeakable sin of choice but as a fact of life, like blue eyes and blonde hair.

The world was changing and I, a master of current events, was behind on the news.

All of which is a long introduction to the North Carolina Constitutional Amendment to prohibit homosexual marriage on the May 8 Primary ballot.

There already is state law that bans same sex marriages.  The constitutional amendment is a campaign promise made by Republican legislators and they have made good on that promise.  The legislators believe that a state judge might overturn the law, and the amendment is insurance that doesn’t happen.

It’s unnecessary and does nothing to prevent a federal judge to strike the law down.  The amendment has an odor of spitefulness about it.

But like the state law, which was adopted by a Democratic controlled legislature, the amendment is likely to be approved as well, driven by Bible Belt religious conservatives. 

But I was wrong in 1993 about public attitudes toward homosexuality and behind the times.  So I would be happy to be wrong again.

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There’s a quote, probably by an Englishman but attributed to the Chinese, that says, “May you live in interesting times.”  It’s a curse.

If so, North Carolina is facing a cursed new year because it’s certainly going to be interesting.

The most watched issue will be the economy.  The state entered 2012 carrying a 10 percent jobless rate from the old year.  December figures probably will be better because of seasonal Christmas hiring.  The question is whether the economy continues to improve, even slowly.

The New Year, which is a leap year, is an election year and North Carolina stands to get its fill of politics.  The Democratic Party will hold its national convention in Charlotte in September.

And thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court’s stupid Citizens United opinion, the state, like Iowa, will be flooded with negative, super PAC advertising.  The state’s May 8 Primary Election is late in the process but the Republican presidential nomination may still not be decided by May.  The fall elections for all state offices from governor to Congress to legislature to sheriff, will pump the airwaves and Internet with such questionable junk.

The rematch between Gov. Beverly Perdue and her pre-ordained opponent, former Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory, will not be a Lincoln-Douglas contest.  More like Antietam and Gettysburg.

The state Primary will see a big battle in the revived culture wars, this one over a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.  It will mix religion and politics and draw bigger-than-normal crowds to the polls.  Mercifully the issue will be settled before the contentious November vote.

Government agencies will see more budget cuts. The 2011-2012, $19.7 billion budget was written using one-time funds that won’t be around this year.  Those agencies heavy with personnel such as Health and Human Services and the re-constituted Public Safety Department that now includes prisons are likely to tighten their belts even more.

Public schools and universities that spend the bulk of the states’ revenues can expect more surgery.  This comes at a time when officials are arguing over how many teaching jobs were lost in this fiscal year and the university system is increasing tuition higher than ever.

We know these things are coming.  We don’t know what surprises Mother Nature will throw at us.  The state is still calculating damages from Hurricane Irene and rebuilding from the April 16 swarm of tornadoes continues.  Not to mention natural gas fracking and earthquakes.

Interesting times, indeed.