Lottery Starts
So the lottery started and North Carolina hasn’t slid into the ocean yet or anything.
Here’s a link to our early morning coverage of the lottery opening. (Link subject to expiring due to the ongoing server transition.)
Meanwhile, Sen. Phil Berger of Eden says:
For some time now the Education Union (North Carolina Association of Educators), Governor Easley, and the Democratic Legislative Leadership have sold the idea of a Lottery to North Carolinians as a panacea that will cure all of the problems facing our public education system. March 30th is the first day of what represents the fruits of their labor, and time will tell whether the lottery will live up to the expectations which have been created.North Carolina's public education system has high dropout rates, poor test scores, low teacher pay, and all too often inadequately prepares students for the 21st century economy.
It is my great hope that the start of the lottery will finally force the Governor and the Democrat controlled General Assembly to shift their focus from gimmicks and inflated promises to real solutions to the substantial problems facing North Carolina's public education system.
As always, the comment link is open.
Update: Your odds of winning? Well, I'm told by weather folks that your chance of getting hit by lightening is 1 in 3 million on average, so you're still doing better than that if you're aiming for the $100,000.
Comments (3)
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Hi Mark,
What is the source of the Berger quotation? I ask because North Carolina teachers have no union and I'm wondering if the parenthetical clarification came from Berger as an acknowledgement of that fact or if was sympathetically inserted to keep Berger from sliding to far up the moron scale.
Posted on March 30, 2006 10:03 AM
Roch - the source of that is a press release from Berger himself. I altered it not a bit.
You are correct in saying that the NCAE is not, technically, a union.
But - not that I side one way or the other here - they sure act like a union in some respects, particularly in their lobbying activity.
Posted on March 30, 2006 10:30 AM
Thanks, Mark. Still leaves one wondering why Berger wrote (and capitalized) "Education Union."
Yes, unions lobby. But so do other professional associations, which is what the NCAE is. Teachers are hardly organized like, or acting as if, they are unionized. In fact, they can't be much like a union because of state laws.
Posted on March 30, 2006 11:17 AM