Mark Binker questions the ethics of Eddie Goodall serving as a state senator while also president of the North Carolina Alliance for Public Charter Schools. Goodall offered an amendment to eliminate the cap on charter schools to a bill to create co-op high schools. The co-ops “shall have the same exemptions from statutes and rules as charter schools operating under Part 6A of this Article, other than those pertaining to personnel,” so the charter amendment fit the seeming intent of the law. Goodall has long supported removing the cap on charter schools, so it fits with his record.
He has a new job, though, and that raises questions. I can understand about the appearance of a conflict of interest, but Bob Phillips of Common Cause made an utterly fatuous comparison:
It?s not a like a teacher who would serve in the legislature and they would vote for the education budget that benefits everyone. This is a little bit more focused.
Phillips is right that Goodall is not like a politically active member of the NCAE. But the idea that voting for the education budget “benefits everyone” is absurd on its face. If the education budget really did benefit everyone, charter school lotteries would not matter, there would not be dozens of applicants for available seats in the charter schools that do exist, and the top high school in North Carolina again would not be Raleigh Charter High School.
