July 22

July 22, 2013

Dear Pat,

I'm sorry that you missed our family reunion over the weekend. We had plenty of food and the weather was great! My mom got kind of mad that I invited you. I think she's a little upset with what you have been doing lately. However, I told her that if you had come, we would have been able to talk to you about our situations and maybe you would have understood some of our problems living in North Carolina these days. Oh well. That's water under the bridge.

I have so much to do today, so I will try to make this brief as possible (you know that never works, though). However, I have a few things I want to mention. First of all, thank you for taking away some choices I have had to make in the past. I have been working for the state university system for 18 years now, and in this, my 19th year, I will be teaching almost double the number of courses that I have ever taught! Used to be when I taught extra courses I got extra money, but of course that ended several years ago. Anyway, I will be spending most of my time preparing those courses over the next couple of weeks. We have to have everything from August to December pretty much planned in detail before we start teaching. Our students and our superiors expect and need that information. We aren't allowed to make stuff up as we go along.

That brings me to my second comment - I'm kind of confused, but it looks like you all in Raleigh might be making stuff up as you go along. It looks like what you said you all had planned and what is really happening are two different things! For instance, I read in the paper this morning that there is a bill that would end teacher tenure, and would also give people vouchers if they want to send their kids to private schools. I guess that's because their tax money should follow their kids to their schools? I wonder if the vouchers will be enough to cover the tuition at the private schools so that all families can take advantage of this? Of course, they would need transportation and meals provided, too. I know you've thought of all of that, though. But in my case, I don't have kids. So is there some way that I could get my tax money back since I don't need to send my kids to public schools? I mean, why is it to my benefit for my neighbors' kids to be educated?

While I'm planning my classes, though, I would really like your advice on what to tell them about a few things. You could come in and guest lecture - I know you would be a popular speaker! My classes meet either 4 - 7pm or 7 - 10pm, so it would be convenient for you to come after work. My students need to know why they might want to stay in North Carolina after they receive their teaching licenses. Or do you recommend that they go somewhere they could actually get ahead and save a bit of money? It's a dilemma for me to figure out - on the one hand, I think there will still be schools in NC even if they have very little funding. But the American Dream includes things like job security and every now and then a bit more money added to one's salary. Those things aren't available here any more. So, we really need your input and thoughts on this!

I know this is a lot to take in and consider! It is for me, anyway, but I'm just a girl. Tell you what. I'll come down to Raleigh this afternoon with a few of my friends and we can discuss it. Just respond to this email and we can figure out a place to meet up. It gets really crowded down there on Halifax Mall and I'm afraid we might miss each other without a plan.

See you soon!

Nancy

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July 22

Dear Governor,

Good morning! I'm very busy today but I just wanted to let you know that I got up early and fixed my husband sausage gravy and biscuits for breakfast! He really enjoyed it too.

You may have noticed I left your name off of my salutation; this was not actually an oversight. I was reading in the news this morning about how Sen. Berger and Rep. Tillis have made some "back room deals" to trade ending teacher tenure for allowing vouchers for private schools. So, it seems that it doesn't really matter who is governor with these guys in the legislature because they seem to be doing whatever they want.

This voucher thing sounds especially intriguing.  I know some of the parents of my students might be interested. Let's see...what does your average private school cost per year these days? I'm sure the voucher will be enough to cover that which is a good thing because the tuition at some of these schools is as much as some of my parents earn in a year! And you will be providing free lunch and bus service too, like we do in the public schools, right? Because again, this is something many of our parents have come to count on.

This wouldn't be a political gimmick designed to enlist the support of citizens, you know, the old bait and switch tactic, would it? Nah...you guys are looking out for us poor folks, especially us women, so I'm sure you have it all under control!

Well, got to run...Have a great day!

Sincerely,

Debbie Leonard

PS-I am very disappointed that I haven't heard from you.

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