RALEIGH — While the North Carolina Parent Teacher Association is becoming less popular among parents, it is becoming more popular among politicians reports Carolina Journal.

North Carolina parents are leaving the PTA by the thousands, opting to form independent parent teacher organizations. Some are making the switch because they’re fed up with the PTA’s political involvement — it partners with teacher unions to lobby against school choice, and its national organization opposes the Bush tax cuts — but most parents just want more bang for their buck.

The General Assembly found NCPTA worthy of more than $1 million in dropout prevention grants over the last four years. The grants were given for NCPTA’s Parent Involvement Initiative, even though parent involvement in the organization has declined steadily for 50 years.

The organization has lost one-third of its membership since 2001 and is only half the size it was in the 1960s. Its remaining 188,000 members represent about 7 percent of the state’s parents with children in school.

NCPTA has received nearly $2 million in government funds since 2007. Tax dollars now make up about two-thirds of its operating budget.

News FeaturesCJ: Fund managers collected $263 million from state
RALEIGH — North Carolina paid more than $263 million in management fees to outside fund managers during the most recent fiscal year for its various pensions, an increase of almost 14 percent over the previous year. Much of the spike in fees went to fixed income investments such as bonds; management fees for those investments totaled more than $41 million.

CJ: Lawmakers collecting above-average pay
RALEIGH — North Carolina’s top-paid legislator in 2009 earned 48 percent more than the average state government employee earned in the same year, and 54 percent more than the average private sector employee. Among the 25 legislators collecting the highest compensation in 2009, the vast majority were Democrats; only six were Republicans.

CJ Video: Controversial leader receives N.C. honor
RALEIGH — Supporters of Wake County’s conservative school board majority are upset with Gov. Bev Perdue for awarding the state’s top honor to a controversial civil rights leader. Rev. William Barber received the Order of the Long Leaf Pine in August.

CJ: Comic books line shelves of N.C. libraries
RALEIGH — While the value or harm of comic books has been debated for decades, the genre has grown in acceptance among librarians and educators, and some libraries now host large collections of graphic novels, Japanese manga, and plain old American comics.

CJ Video: Neighbors rally against rail option
RALEIGH — Residents of Raleigh’s Five Points district are standing up against an option to bring President Obama’s high speed rail through their backyards. The option is called NC-3, which would run trains down the west side of Capital Boulevard into downtown Raleigh. The option would use eminent domain to seize homes and businesses in order to make room for the faster trains.

Upcoming EventsMonday, September 20, 2010 at 12:00 noon
A meeting of the Shaftesbury Society
with our special guest Dr. Petur O. Jonsson
On Virtue, the Pursuit of Happiness, and Economic Behavior

Wednesday, September 29, 2010 at Noon
A Headliner Luncheon Panel Discussion
with our special guests Michael Barone, Gary Pearce, Marc Rotterman, John Hood
2010 Election Preview

Saturday, October 02, 2010 at 8:30 am- 1:30 pm
A Citizen’s Constitutional Workshop
with presenters Dr. Troy Kickler & Dr. Michael Sanera
What the Founders and the State Ratification Conventions Can Teach Us Today

“This is not cutting across the board. This is a surgical cut. It might be a large scalpel, but this is going in and carving out specific areas that we can do without.”
— Chrissy Pearson, a spokeswoman for Gov. Bev Perdue, commenting to the Raleigh News & Observer on an order requiring state agencies to identify potential permanent 5 percent, 10 percent, and 15 percent budget cuts.

“It’s hard to find what you would actually call a bright spot.”
— Rick Kaglic, an economist with the Federal Reserve in Charlotte, talking to the Charlotte Observer about the local economy.

“If we don’t set a new direction in our country fiscally, 2012 is irrelevant.”
— Sen. Richard Burr, as quoted by the Charlotte Observer, speaking at a campaign rally in Charlotte.

“We have to ask ourselves where is the benefit of an assignment policy based on economic diversity when the end result produces the worst scores in the system?”
— Dan Coleman, president of the local civil-right group the Raleigh-Wake Citizens Association, as quoted by the Raleigh News & Observer, in an e-mail questioning the value of the Wake County school’s recently discarded socioeconomic diversity-based school assignment policy.

On The Air This Week…

This week on C J Radio…
Carolina Journal’s Don Carrington discusses the Perdue campaign’s $30,000 fine; Bob Orr of the N.C. Institute for Constitutional Law discusses issues at stake in Highway Trust Fund case; NC GOP Chairman Tom Fetzer and Perdue campaign spokesman Marc Farinella spar over unreported campaign flights; Jason Kay of the N.C. Institute for Constitutional Law discusses constitutional rights for third parties; and JLF’s Terry Stoops talks about online education as a positive disruption for rural schools.

This week on NC Spin…
Join guest moderator Henry Hinton for another week of political discussion and debate on the most intelligent television talk show in the state. This week’s topics: Keeping people sentenced to life in prison behind bars; closing Dorothea Dix hospital, auditing the State Ferry Division; and looking for a new lottery director. This week’s panelists: John Hood and Becki Gray from the John Locke Foundation; Chris Fitzsimon of NC Policy Watch; and former Attorney General and Secretary of State Rufus Edmisten.