Rob Schofield, NC Policy Watch
for the UNC Faculty Assembly
January 20, 2012
Rob Schofield – Policy Director at NC
Policy Watch, lawyer, lobbyist, writer,
troublemaker for 25 years
NC Policy Watch –
 State’s leading and most prolific
progressive “think tank”
 Free media outlet for progressives
 www.ncpolicywatch.com
 Answering/exposing
the right
 Energizing the state’s progressive
movement
 Dramatically increasing the quantity and
distribution of progressive messages
 Winning the propaganda war (aka “the
battle of ideas”)
 Transforming state policymaking
 The
worst legislative session in decades
 A determined and sustained assault on
public structures and solutions that
featured:
• A slash and burn budget
• Tax cuts at the worst possible time
• Dozens of regressive substantive policy changes
 Effectively
cutting taxes (sales, income
corporate)
 $500 million in cuts to health care for the
poor (Medicaid “optional” services)
 Firing thousands of educators
 Wrecking Smart Start and More at Four
 Damaging higher education
 Decimating the courts, public defenders,
the environment, etc…
 Unemployment
Insurance hostage crisis
 Anti-choice – so-called “Women’s right to
know” law
 Election restrictions (voter ID, campaign
finance, early voting)
 Small loans – 90% interest rates
 Charter schools, school vouchers
 Restricting community college student
loans
 Eviscerating
DENR and rulemaking
 So-called tort reform
 Repealing the Racial Justice Act
 Concealed weapons in parks and
restaurants
 The marriage discrimination amendment
 The midnight assault on teachers
 And much more…
 Huge
and painful cuts to early childhood,
K-12 and higher education
 Rapid, unregulated expansion of charter
schools
 Community college loan access limited
 UNC cut by $444 million (15+%)
 Fewer and larger classes
 Teachers’ lobby in the crosshairs
 Large new UNC tuition hikes
 Undercut
and erode support for all things
“public”
 Privatize core government services or
make them “fee for service”
 More sticks, fewer carrots
 Promote/expand corporate personhood
 Promote markets as an end rather than as
merely a means of generating prosperity
 Redefine “freedom”
 Healthy, well-funded
public structures
and services
 Tax modernization and reform
 Preserve and expand free/affordable
public education
 Voter-owned elections
 Make the market economy a tool rather
than an object of worship
A
full-time, part-time legislature (multiple
special sessions)
 No holds barred
 An all-out public relations war
coordinated with the right-wing think
tanks
 The Pope Empire
“What we have to do is find a way to divide
and conquer the people who are on
assistance.We have to show respect for
that woman who has cerebral palsy and
had no choice in her condition that needs
help and we should help. And we need to
get those folks to look down at these
people who choose to get into a condition
that makes them dependent on the
government.”
 More
of the same
 Redistricting lawsuits
 Marriage discrimination campaign
 The 2012 campaign (May and November)
 The short session
 The convention in Charlotte
 The election
 Battle
continues
 North Carolina a fast-growing “purple”
state
 A flood of corporate money
 Redistricting decision critical
 2012 election critical
 More voices needed
Good news and bad news
 Bad:
• Mainstream news media has been shrinking
• Capital press corps tiny in comparison to past
• Less light on the process in many ways
 Good:
• Alternatives are springing up
• Messy – can feel like a fire hose of info
• NC Policy Watch , Budget & Tax Center critical
tools
Rob Schofield
NC Policy Watch
P.O. Box 28068
Raleigh, NC 27611
919-861-2065
rob@ncpolicywatch.com