The School Board’s shocked, just shocked. And mad. “Who on the Wake County Board of Commissioners,” growls one board member, “Wants the dubious honor of putting Wake County on a downward spiral?”

What’s up? The Board asked the County Commissioners to almost double its budget over the next five years – and the Commissioners said they didn’t have that much money. So the Board’s in a snit.

When it comes to spending taxpayers’ money the School Board gets a great deal. It doesn’t have to find the money. Or raise taxes. That’s the County Commissioners’ problem. All the Board has to do is spend it. And it’s good at it.

This year with school enrollment up 5% the School Board demanded an 18% spending increase - $54 million. The commissioners gave it $18 million, which is more than any other department got. The School Board shot back it must have the other $36 million or the Wake County School System – “a shining example in North Carolina and in the nation” – is kaput. The Commissioners will have ruined it.

I tried to determine how much the School Board spends per pupil and how many of its employees are non-teachers; but you’d need an M.B.A. from Harvard – which I don’t have – to even begin to understand the School Board’s budget. I’m amazed the County Commissioners didn’t just give them the money to avoid reading the budget. I saw two numbers on how much the Board spends per student: $7500 and $8900. Also, according to its budget, the School Board has 17,500 employees (one for every eight students): Only 9,228 of them are teachers – but according to the School Board it has virtually no administrators.

Here’s an admittedly biased conclusion: People like to spend money. They especially like to spend other people’s money. And there’s hardly a better excuse on earth for spending other people’s money than getting on a School Board. The ‘handful’ of folks at school administration headquarters have figured out they can sell almost anything – politically – by saying the Wake County schools will collapse and the world will end if they have to cut their budget. (And their definition of cut is to ask for $56 million, get $18 million, and call that a $36 million shortfall.)

And it works. This morning in the News and Observer a headline read: Wake school board weighs budget cuts. The first line reads, “Wake County parents, students and teachers will find out today how wide the budget ax will swing to make up the school district’s $36 million shortfall…”

Doesn’t that beat all? The County Commissioners gave them an $18 million increase. And it’s a $36 million cut.

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The topic at breakfast downtown this morning was the cutbacks at the N&O – and consolidation with The Charlotte Observer.

“Society and democracy took a hit this week,” one friend said. He believes the cuts mean less competition among the papers, less news coverage and less scrutiny of government.

“But the papers have to face economic reality,” my other friend said. She believes that newspapers have to face tough times, just like other companies. Journalists need to stop whining and figure out ways to do their jobs better.

He said, “The people most likely to lose their jobs are the more senior and experienced reporters and editors.” He thinks that hurts the quality of coverage.

She said, “There are a lot of energetic young reporters.” She also said that blogs – by reporters and others – already are filling the gap.

He and she both agreed that the cuts are demoralizing to people who work at the papers – and give us our news every day.

And they agreed that reporters and editors will have less time to do the kind of talking, listening and poking around that is essential to good journalism.

He is pessimistic about the problems. She is optimistic about the opportunities.

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The only thing worse than the cuts at The News & Observer was the way N&O executives handled the announcement. They sounded like the stonewalling government bureaucrats the N&O excoriates during Open Government Week.

Jonathan B. Cox, who wrote the story, had the hardest job in North Carolina. Imagine writing about your employers while they’re deciding which 16 newsroom employees will be fired.

This line was especially interesting:

“For readers, the changes will mean a thinner newspaper with more focused coverage and a scope that reaches across North Carolina.”

What does “more focused coverage” mean?  Sounds like “less.”

And “a scope that reaches across North Carolina?” That apparently refers to the fact that the N&O will no longer be competing with The Charlotte Observer. They will move closer to being one newspaper.

John Drescher, the N&O's executive editor and senior vice president for news, was honest:

"Clearly, when you look at these changes and some other changes we've made, print readers are going to get less….Strategically, our goal is to maintain the quality of our print product” (while offering more on The N&O's Web sites).

The N&O’s chiefs owe the public more than what was in effect a published press release. 

All last week, they stonewalled WRAL, huffing that any announcements would be made in the N&O.

But can you count on any institution – a newspaper or a government agency – to report honestly on itself?

Drescher and publisher Orage Quarles III should subject themselves to questions from outside reporters.

Yes, the N&O is owned by a private company. But it has a public role and a public responsibility. 

The paper should show the same accountability it demands from other companies and institutions.

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A tip of the hat to Joyce Fitzpatrick, who sent along this news item:

“The News & Observer is preparing to lay off about 10 percent of its newsroom staff and will announce other cuts affecting its news operation, sources inside the N&O tell WRAL.com.”

And the N&O responded exactly the same way that its targets sometimes do:

“Asked about layoffs, Felicia Gressette, vice president of marketing for the N&O who spoke on behalf of publisher Orage Quarles III, said, ‘We’re just not going to comment’.”

Gressette added: “Any changes will be announced in the N&O, not WRAL.com.”

By the way, my associates and I are available to provide media-relations help to the N&O during this challenging time. Pass it on.

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Barack Obama is supposed to be quite the pickup basketball player, and he’s putting quite the head fake on John McCain in North Carolina.

It’s good strategy. Obama has the money and the grassroots organization to make the Republicans worry – at least for now – about how much time and money to spend here.

Every dollar and every hour the Republicans do spend in North Carolina helps Obama nationally.

Even better, Obama’s foray here is another sign that his success so far was not based just on inspiration. His campaign also has brains.

The post-mortems on the Democratic race expose the internal reasons why he won and Clinton lost:

• His campaign was loyal, methodical and disciplined. Hers was rife with dissent, division and disagreement.
• His campaign played to win in 50 states – and, more to the point, in 435 congressional districts. He targeted his efforts to win delegates. The Clinton campaign was groping in the dark.

And it is clear now how big North Carolina was. Obama’s big win here – early enough in the evening to dominate the news while the Indiana vote was delayed – delivered the final momentum-killer to Clinton.

I’m still dubious that North Carolina will be in play come November. If it is, Obama will be President.

But this is good for Democrats. The bigger the field Obama can force McCain to play on, the better Obama’s chances to win the White House.

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Pat McCrory was always the Republicans’ best bet to win the Governor’s race in November. 

But how can he win in what may be a Democratic year?

There is only one way: Use Obama’s strategy. Be the candidate of Change.

Attack “a culture of corruption and mismanagement in Raleigh.”

He doesn’t have to overstate things. Stating the facts will do: A Speaker in prison, legislators forced to resign, a state lottery conceived in sin, mental health care in disarray, a probation system in disarray, etc. 

And he can exploit the poisonous relationship between the press and government.

Bev Perdue has strengths. She is a woman, she is experienced and she owns the health care issue. She has the best team of campaign pros in North Carolina.

But she is widely seen as a brittle candidate – who may not stand up to a smart, sustained attack. (Richard Moore’s was sustained, but not smart. He could hardly run against Raleigh.)

Perdue could try again to keep it all positive. But that works only when the attacks are personal. It won’t work against attacks based on changing Raleigh.

McCrory has smart people, too. I bet they figure out the attack-Raleigh part.

But McCrory also has to offer something positive, something that appeals to Independents and even Democrats.

Here is what I would do: Propose raising teachers’ salaries in North Carolina to $100,000 a year.

That’s right: Every teacher in North Carolina should make $100,000 a year. That’s the way to get good teachers, good schools and good results. It’s good politics and good policy.

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When it comes to brute cunning it’s hard to match the Wake County School Board – it’s budget time and they’ve met the County Commissioners in fiscal battle head-on.

The Board says it can cut dropout rates and graduate ninety percent of its students by 2013 – but there’s a catch. It needs more money. A lot more. How much more? It wants – just about – to double its budget. The Board wants an eighty-percent spending increase ($250 million a year) – and isn’t worried about how much County Commissioners have to raise taxes to pay for it.

The School Board’s put the Commissioners in a political corner, saying, Do you want to save these poor underprivileged students who’re dropping out? Then come up with the money.

But stop a moment to think. How certain is School Superintendent Del Burns – who drew up this plan – that he can deliver on his promise? Can we put it in the bank? Or is this – purely and simply – a political maneuver to get the Commissioners to double the School Board’s budget?

Right now, today, Wake County offers every student a world-class education. Free. We just spent a cool billion dollars to build shiny new schools – but 20% of the students still drop out.

The school board’s theory is if we spend twice as much money and give the students an even better world-class education – the dropouts will change their minds and stay in school.

But if free world-class schools don’t appeal to dropouts – would super-duper world-class schools ignite a thirst for knowledge? The school board will probably say they’ll hire mentors and surrogate parents and set up all kinds of special classrooms – but, it’s my experience most teenagers have a mind of their own when it comes to what they like and don’t like and a sixteen-year-old who doesn’t want to sit in a classroom isn’t likely to change his mind when you tell him, Well, you’ll be sitting in a better classroom next year.

I’m afraid the fact is Superintendent Burns has made a crafty political move – he’s checkmated the County Commissioners by selling a pig in a poke. After all, they give him the money now and he’s got five years before anyone can say, Well, that turned out to be a billion-dollar misjudgment on your part.

The Superintendent has also lined up the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce to support his proposal. In the old days Chambers of Commerce were conservative business organizations. Anti-taxes. Anti-regulations. But they’ve adapted to the modern age. Today they’re lobbying organizations. Their goal isn’t to stop regulations and red tape. It’s to get government to spend other people’s money to help them. And it’s hard to argue with their logic; they lobby for projects like civic centers and tax subsidies for corporations. It costs taxpayers billions. But costs them nothing. I’m not sure how schools fit into their equation; perhaps doubling the schools’ budget will bring more people to Raleigh to help the labor market.

Anyway, the county commissioners have to figure out how to (politically) say no to the business lobby and to cutting the dropout rate – or raise spending (and taxes) $250 million. What can they do? Well, they can offer the School Board to hold a vote – a real cut-and-dry, clearly-worded referendum that reads like this: The School Board would like to increase its budget 80% to cut the drop-out rage from 30% to 10%. Their plan will cost $250 million a year. To pay for it we’ll have to raise property taxes x%. Do you vote Yes or No?

That should settle it one way or the other.

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Frank Daniels, the acid-tongued former N&O publisher, greeted a Raleigh reporter recently thusly: “Still got a job?”

It’s a question of lot of newspaper employees are asking these days.

Two big trees fell last week: Paul O’Connor with the Winston-Salem Journal and Chuck Riesz with the Wilmington Star took buyouts. Word is that more axes will fall in newsrooms across the state.

It’s not just here. The St. Petersburg, Fla., Times announced big layoffs last week. 

The journalists don’t understand it. As the target of Daniels’ question mused: “I don’t understand why nobody at the newspapers can figure out how to make money on the web.”

Here’s the dilemma. The papers’ content is available free on their websites. So why buy a paper when you can get it free? So advertisers ask: Why buy a print ad when the readers are on the website?

Here’s the problem for us readers: When the papers lose money, they dump people. This means a poorer quality news product.

And here’s my bet: Somebody will solve this problem and make a bunch of money delivering news on the web.

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Some members of Governor Easley’s email study commission are privately critical of the news media – like the N&O – for both covering the story and being part of the story.

The commission members believe the dual role has led to slanted coverage. They think media representatives have been unreasonable and inconsistent in their appearances before the panel.

Here is the members’ viewpoint, as I understand it:

The media has taken the position that ALL email messages should be saved and kept on file for public inspection. State employees should not and cannot be trusted with discretion to delete messages.

Well, the commission members ask, what about spam? Oh, says the media, you can delete the spam.

Then, the commissioners ask, what about personal email? Oh, says the media, you can delete that, too.

Aha, the commission members say. You are conceding that state employees should have some discretion. So the real question is how much discretion and on what schedule.

I don’t know whether the criticism is fair. But the commission members raise an interesting point: Can you trust the media when the media is reporting on itself?

That’s always a bone of contention in newsrooms. You’ve seen little coverage lately, for example, on buyouts and possible layoffs at the N&O and Charlotte Observer.

And many readers don’t understand why the N&O is suing to get Eve Carson’s autopsy report.

Sometimes the cobbler’s children don’t have shoes.

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