With regard to your editorial ‘North Carolina’s declining popularity,’ I would like to point out one thing. The statement, “the Republicans of the North Carolina state legislature have helped our state to fit in better with the rest of the ignorant South by passing laws that demonstrate intolerance, little value for education and high value for wealth,” is a grave over-generalization of the Republican Party of North Carolina. Yes, there are a ton of “knuckleheads” with the letter “R” beside their name in the North Carolina General Assembly, but not all are against the advancement of public education in North Carolina. For example, Rep. Linda Johnson is a Republican from Cabarrus County who voted against the recently passed budget. In fact, there were several Republicans who voted against the budget. Although most of the “aye” votes were cast by Republicans, this, in no way, means that all Republicans in the North Carolina GOP are evil and against education. I think the bottom line is that our state legislature, as a whole, in years past, has consistently undermined public education. Democrats could have done much more for public education and teachers in the past. Acting like they did is simply hypocritical. In no way should the Republican Party take sole blame for this issue, because the Democrats did nothing for education in the past! Our state legislature must realize that “moving North Carolina forward” means that we don’t take our teachers and educators for granted! 

Kathryn Loyd

senior, chemistry