When United States Attorney General Loretta Lynch stepped to the podium Monday afternoon to announce the Department of Justice had filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the State of North Carolina, Governor Pat McCrory, the North Carolina Department of Public Safety, and the University of North Carolina over House Bill 2, the Federal Government is trying to put an end to what she called “state-sponsored discrimination.”
For the purpose of this article, only the University of North Carolina will be addressed here because of funding the school receives under Title IX. While the state has been hit in the pocketbook because of businesses either pulling out of agreements or scaling back expansions, not to mention the significant number of concerts and events that have been canceled due to HB2, there is nearly $4.5 Billion at stake that would be spread over K-through-12 plus UNC and its satellite schools, including the Queen City’s own University of North Carolina Charlotte.
Governor McCrory somehow believes that by suing the DOJ he will stave off the government’s “option of curtailing federal funding [under Title IX],” as Lynch said in her press conference. In essence, the first term governor is betting the future of his state’s education system that he can not only get the money, but keep the so-called law on the books.
Matt Ellinwood, the director of the non-profit education and law project at the North Carolina Justice Center, in an interview with NPR's Ari Shapiro immediately after both suits were filed, said the $4.5B is nearly 12-percent of the state’s education funding, a major hit to the budget. It would eliminate scholarships and Pell Grants, or to put it another way, losing 7,700 teachers and 4,400 teaching assistants.
UNC Charlotte’s “cut” of the funding pie is unknown, but as the school tries to get a better footing in athletics, less scholarships could translate into fewer students who could afford to attend classes much less participate in sports.
McCrory’s single-mindedness on HB2 is incomprehensible considering what is at stake. Recent polls show a majority of North Carolinians are against HB2 for various reasons although no one knows how many of those people would rate education as their primary reason. The state has already trimmed the schooling budget to the point where it ranks 46th in the nation in expenditure, says Ellinwood.
UNC has 17 campuses around the state and it is hard to figure how most of them will be able to adapt to the lost funding, especially if the DOJ-NC battle wages on for years. Some could get relief from boosters who are heavily involved keeping the basketball and/or football programs fully stocked with talented kids, but those who don’t have that kind of history, like UNCC, could suffer big time.
Even if the funding is lost for one year, the ramifications of McCrory’s gamble will be felt long after he leaves office and that is the saddest thing of all. Maybe he is trying to raise his national profile in hopes of landing a coveted spot in a potential Donald Trump administration, like maybe number two on the ticket; however, he is throwing caution to the wind with the state he allegedly loves.
House Bill 2 is not a singular issue about who uses what bathroom. It is far reaching in how one segment of the population is being targeted for discrimination. McCrory is playing the victim card in suing the DOJ and blaming the entire HB2 controversy on the City of Charlotte and its mayor, Jennifer Roberts. He also called the government “bullies” for stepping in.
It was McCrory and his Republican cronies who passed HB2 with the kind of speed never seen in politics, yet he complained that the DOJ gave him “only” three business days to respond to their request that they would not comply with or implement House Bill 2’s restriction on restroom access. He then asked for an extension and as it was actively under consideration the governor chose to file a suit against the government.
McCrory’s irrational behavior in support of HB2 has already cost his state more than $200 million in revenues outside Title IX. Now with a very real threat that that education funding could go away makes him look like he doesn’t care about his constituents.
For one thing, he, like many of his Republican counterparts, preaches that states want to control their own destinies with the federal government having less say in their affairs. But in his press conference on Monday, McCrory pivoted to let Congress decide the fate of HB2 and bills like it. Hypocrisy at its finest.
McCrory’s whining is beneath the Office of the Governor and North Carolina is in the national and world news for all the wrong reasons. It is a battle he will not win, not to mention the millions he will cost taxpayers in the attempt to defeat the United States Government and the Department of Justice. Meanwhile students, from grade school to college, and aspiring athletes will become the real losers.
HB2 is hateful and wrong. McCrory and his Conservative legislators have shown they could care less about people they know absolutely nothing about or understand their plight. They have force fed HB2 as a “Bathroom Bill” to garner support when it fact it misrepresents what it really is - “state-sponsored discrimination.”
UNC Charlotte, like many of the smaller satellites of UNC, is in the crosshairs of the federal government so McCrory needs to put his big boy pants on and do what’s right for his state by dropping this frivolous lawsuit and eliminate HB2.
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