Three bills easily sailed through the North Carolina House of Representatives this week.  All three are linked in that they'll gauge, promote and switch public schools away from the "paper model" of textbooks and teaching towards a digital learning environment.  Several representatives are on board, including large amounts of both Democrats and Republicans.  The bills are being "run" or led by Union County (NC) Republican Representative Craig Horn.  He proved to be a great salesman for his legislation, with passed the House without much more scrutiny than a few reminders

The first week started slowly and ramped up very quickly.  Usually, the first week of a legislative session involves the party leaders calling press conferences to outline a broad political agenda.  It seems the agenda topics are alway the same, regardless of party in power - schools, roads....you can list them as they're generally "kitchen table" issues.   The week's end saw tangible and quick action on a couple of items that, in fact, are kitchen table issues but haven't been discussed in years past because the situation didn't warrant it.

Okay, the idea of the NC General Assembly scrapping the current state tax structure is getting attention, but public education reform is coming if you believe the House and Senate Republican leadership.  Like tax reform, the ideas of how to further change public education, and its funding, are numerous and you can't be sure which proposals will find themselves inside of bills that have a chance of becoming state law.  It's obvious that Republicans run the state of North Carolina, but Republicans have different ideas.  Give parents vouchers so they can use government money to

After returning from Senate President Pro Tem, Phil Berger's, press conference to reveal the Senate GOP Caucus's agenda, someone said to me, "Hey, it's amazing how two people can hear the same words from the same press conference and yet hear different things."  I'd never thought about it but had booked two interview guests to come to the Legislative Week in Review TV studio - Rob Schofield of NC Policy Watch (they're liberal/progressive - pick your term) and Francis DeLuca, the president of Civitas Institute (Conservative group yet not affiliated with a political party).  Yes, bo