Safe classrooms should be more important than embarrassing our governor

Published March 3, 2021

By WRAL TV

What has North Carolina learned over the last month -- when first Senate Bill 37: “In-Person Learning Choice for Families” was filed in the state legislature and then on Monday when Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of the bill was sustained?

That the true motivation of the legislation was primarily about, once again, legislative leadership’s efforts to embarrass and defeat the governor. Getting the state’s school children and teachers safely back into classrooms was merely coincidental.

That’s become even more obvious with indications from legislative leaders that today there may be an attempt, through a parliamentary maneuver, to resurrect the matter and make another go to override the veto.

So, all of this demonstrates that these legislative leaders who had a chance at a major legislative win – and bring the governor into their camp – instead will go into the ashes of their defeat to ignite more flames of wrongly placed anger and derision.

In the days the legislation was debated and moving through the General Assembly process Cooper repeatedly made clear what it would take to send him a bill he could sign. His modifications would not have weakened the legislation a bit – but were important to assure public health was protected.  

Cooper rightly insisted the legislation assure schools adhere to state and federal COVID-19 pandemic guidelines for social distancing. Also, state and local health and education authorities needed to have the ability to move students to remote learning in an emergency – such as the spread of a new coronavirus variant in schools.

But the legislative leadership would have none of it. As the legislation moved and Cooper continued to make clear what was needed to make the back-to-classrooms plan workable, legislative leaders responded with dismissiveness.

Rather than reaching out, legislative leaders attacked Cooper and sought to make it a partisan matter. Insults were repeatedly hurled toward the state’s teachers’ organization that echoed rhetoric from former President Donald Trump.

Even after the state Senate sustained Cooper’s veto Monday, the reaction was not one of determination to work with the governor to get classrooms open, it was to attack legislators who backed the veto, Cooper and the state’s teachers.

And now, instead of working to get a responsible bill to open more classrooms safely, legislative leaders are launching another effort to give Cooper a political bruising.

What was not expressed amid all this maneuvering was any commitment to the objective of the legislation, any determination to hold Cooper to his word and a pledge to find some way to get consensus behind the point of the bill. No, it was just the same worn-out bromides about “flip-flopping” legislators, “far-left” organizations and partisan pot-shots.

There is an easy solution. Give the legislation a rebirth – new and not a scheme to get another veto override vote.

Introduce a nearly identical bill that also addresses Cooper’s concerns. It shouldn’t be much of a challenge to get near universal sponsorship since most legislators who expressed reservations about the initial plan had the same cautions as the governor. It should easily pass and be signed into law in mere days.  Go ahead, call Cooper on his stand.

But that would require a commitment to seeking the best for North Carolina, working toward solutions that would help children, teachers and parents. It would require subjugation of partisanship and ideology.

But the reality is, unfortunately, that isn’t the goal of the people who lead the General Assembly today. Their singular focus is on reflexive partisan attacks and belittling the current governor – no matter the cost to the state.

This should have been a victory to crow about with a show-case piece of legislation where legislative leaders brought the governor into their fold and helped the state start to move out of the pandemic.

Instead, they are howling into an echo chamber and reveling in the emptiness of their own applause.