RALEIGH, N.C. — Major General William E. Ingram, Jr., Adjutant General of the North Carolina National Guard, will be the guest at the first meeting this session of the North Carolina General Assembly Military Veterans Caucus.

Gen. Ingram is scheduled to discuss the pending deployment of the North Carolina National Guard’s 30th Heavy Brigade Combat Team, based in Clinton. The meeting will be in Room 1228 of the Legislative Building at noon on April 16.

The 30th Brigade is nicknamed the Old Hickory Brigade, after President Andrew Jackson and is the largest unit in the NC National Guard with about 4,000 soldiers based in more than 40 communities across North Carolina. This will be the unit’s second deployment to Iraq. The unit was first deployed to Iraq in February 2004 and returned in early 2005. During that deployment, five of its soldiers were killed and about 100 were wounded.

The Military Veterans Caucus is a bipartisan, bicameral caucus comprised of military veterans, those who represent a district with military interest, and others with a particular interest in military affairs. The caucus steering committee includes Senator Bob Atwater, Senator Harry Brown, Senator Peter Brunstetter, Representative Larry Hall, Representative Ric Killian, and Representative Grier Martin.

In a release from the Republican Caucus Tuesday, leaders explained a proposal that would bridge the gap in private school funding in the years between preschool and college.

The bill is in draft form and not yet ready for introduction.

From their press release:
About 200,000 North Carolinians receive their education at private institutions. In most cases they pay twice – taxes and tuition. North Carolina already has private school choice – at the preschool level and the college level. 

The Smart Start Initiative backs a wide variety of purchases for private services, not just for children of low-income families.  An analysis done by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation1, listed on the Partnership’s website as the chief private donor to Smart Start show that most states use vouchers as part of their standard policy.  This statewide non-profit has received $2,280.2 Billion2 in funding from the taxpayers.

At the college level, the State has provided private education vouchers in the form of Legislative Tuition Grants3 for more than 35 years.  For every North Carolina student who attends an in-state private institution, the taxpayers spend $1,950, compared to spending $12,282 to send that same student to the University of North Carolina. (In addition the state provides financial aid for private colleges to fund scholarships.)

Rep. Paul Stam (R-Wake), along with Reps. Danny McComas (R-New Hanover), Ric Killian (R-Mecklenburg) and Jeff Barnhart (R-Cabarrus) have filed HB 335 – Tax Fairness in Education – to provide a $2,500/year credit for K-12 private education.  This would save the state $13 million to $35 million per year and save local governments $9 million to $25 million per year.

A proposal will also be introduced by Reps. Paul Stam, Laura Wiley (R-Guilford) and Shirley Randleman (R-Wilkes) to give tax credit to parents of children with special needs.  Fiscal Research projects yearly savings are between $1 million and $6 million for the state and $1 million to $5 million for counties.  The proposal provides that any savings would be returned to the public schools after the first year’s implementation costs of $2-8 million.  For each proposal there is a small first year cost because of the way we calculate ADM funding.

“We are being called to sacrifice.  I can not see why saving money while providing more educational choices for our students is not worth a try,” said Rep. Paul Stam.

RALEIGH, N.C. — Gov. Bev Perdue will participate on a panel of governors at the U.S. House Democratic Caucus Issues Conference Friday.

New York Governor David Paterson, Ohio Governor Ted Strickland and Colorado Governor Bill Ritter are also expected to participate. Governor Perdue will urge congressional members to move quickly on a stimulus package that funds infrastructure and other economic development projects and that will put North Carolinians back to work as soon as possible.

The conference will take place in Williamsburg, Va. Friday.