Not to be outdone by the Crazies in other areas of the country, the North Carolina Legislature introduced the “George Washington back-to-school" bill to return a portrait of George back to the public schools this week.
Considering this is coming from a state that claims not to have enough money to pay for a free lunch program or give teachers better pay raises or fund the Driver Education school programs, which has been a program that parents could rely on since I was a boy, you could say that this waste is of taxpayer funds would be an understatement..
Admittedly though, half the funding for the bill would come from the educational lottery and the other half from the budget. It does make one wonder how many school books or other school supplies a million dollars could buy.
But wait, there is much more to the Crazies plan. The proposed bill stipulates that the portraits of our first president as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces can’t be hung just anywhere, it must be placed in a “dignified location and manner so as to educate students about one of the most important figures in the nation’s history and to provide an enduring model of character, leadership, and civic responsibility.” This is the guy that was into vandalizing cherry trees right? even though he did confess.
This plan kind of reminds you of the many cool leaders around the world that have portraits in public building.
Curiousily H858v1 sponsored by Representatives Burr, Torbett, Whitmire, and Pendleton starts with these lines all in Caps
“A BILL TO BE ENTITLED AN ACT APPROPRIATING PROCEEDS FROM THE NORTH CAROLINA STATE LOTTERY TO ESTABLISH THE GEORGE WASHINGTON BACK-TO-SCHOOL GRANT PROGRAM TO RETURN THE NATION'S FIRST PRESIDENT AND COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF TO THE STATE'S PUBLIC SCHOOLS.”
Even though I went to school in North Carolina, I can’t recall portraits of George ever being displayed or removed from school in the first place, so I really don’t get the
“return” to public schools part of this bill? However, there choice of a active slave owner of 56 year, to hang in public school system, seems rather odd indeed.
Control for managing the grants will be handed over to the Governor’s office to administer until the funding is depleted. If passed, the bill will become effective July 1, 2015, just in time for Fourth of July celebrations. That way, they can make a big deal out of it to their “patriotnut” and "anmmosexual" base, on the fourth of July ..