Cut real waste: Governor wants money back from schools ... really?

It seems hard to believe that North Carolina is in such bad shape that its leadership team has to ask schools to dig deep and return some of the state funds allotted to them this year.

That said, if there are any school districts that have money sitting around doing nothing, by all means, send it back to Raleigh.

But on the off-chance that perhaps that money could be used for better purposes, maybe the state's chief executive should think about some better ways to trim the state budget.

Cultural affairs travel might be the first place we would start if we were in charge of cutting back on state expenses and making better use of taxpayer dollars.

After what has seemed like years of dormancy, now lame duck Gov. Mike Easley has all of a sudden decided to be a governor. Heck, he even left Raleigh to travel to Kenly to see the tornado damage rather than watching the coverage on the news.

And while the image might be amusing, the truth is that perhaps now might not be the time to be coming up with all kinds of far-reaching economic moves and calls for belt-tightening. Perhaps that would be better left to the next administration.

There is plenty of extra to cut in Raleigh, but money for the schools really does not seem to be high on the list of places to start looking for savings. While the statewide expense cut might be well-intentioned, it is something that should be considered carefully with the future and priorities in mind. We trust that Gov.-elect Beverly Perdue is already starting to think about that task.

All Easley should be doing now is keeping the ship on course.

Published in Editorials on November 20, 2008 11:08 AM