Takes leadership, State Port Pilot

State Port Pilot, 06.11.25

A well-known conservative columnist penned an article last month titled “(Governor Roy) Cooper Blunder Still Holds Us Back.” The writer was shedding crocodile tears over the fact that student test scores in North Carolina have not recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic as quickly as those in South Carolina and Georgia. 

He blames the former Governor for the slow turnaround because he cautiously held students out of in-person classes several months longer than the other two states. The columnist admitted that the overall death rates in the other states were higher than that in North Carolina, but blames that difference on lower vaccination rates. (Note: Didn’t this fact reflect in a positive manner the level-headed, cautionary approach in N.C.?) 

There are other factors to consider when analyzing student test scores. I don’t remember the columnist shedding any tears when his cronies in the N.C. General Assembly (NCGA) rejected the governor’s annual pay increases for teachers. It would have slowed the “brain drain” with N.C. (especially Brunswick County) teachers going to S.C. schools.

Were there tears when the N.C. Supreme Court reversed the original Leandro Court Decision that would have channeled more than 500 million dollars to N.C. public schools? Instead, this funding was diverted by NCGA to OPPORTUNITY scholarships for private school students — no income limit. 

The columnist thinks that the governor’s approach to the pandemic will hurt him politically in future campaigns. I disagree because N.C. voters will remember his leadership during the pandemic saved lives, and his attempts to address teacher and student needs were rejected year after year by the NCGA. 

William Flythe 

Southport