John and Elizabeth Edwards say they plan to take their two younger children -- Emma Claire, 8, and Jack, 6 -- with them and, in effect, home-school them on the presidential campaign trail.

"We are going to take the kids with us in the summer and the fall," Elizabeth Edwards said on Ed Schultz's syndicated radio program, which aired Monday from Chapel Hill.

"We're going to get someone who will travel with us who can teach math, which I can't do," she said.

"They will get to see America in a way that few young kids get to. They will go to museums. They will have classes. They might be at a rally, but the likelihood is they will not."

John Edwards added, "We don't want them to be away from us. I think it will be an incredible experience for them."

Transfer tax? It depends

Most North Carolinians don't want a transfer tax, but they would support one that went to schools.

In an Elon University poll conducted last week, more than two-thirds of respondents opposed a proposed tax on real estate transactions.

About 69 percent said they would oppose it and only 24 percent favored it.

But the numbers shifted when respondents were asked about a theoretical transfer tax that went entirely to local schools.

Then, opposition dropped to about 42 percent and support swelled to 50 percent.

The legislature is considering several bills that would either give a specific county permission to levy a transfer tax or give all counties the authority. Right now, only six counties levy the tax.

The poll of 476 households had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.6 percent.

Weaver heads Wake party

When a political party has a great year, as the Democrats did in November, the captain usually doesn't have to walk the plank.

But over the weekend, Wake County chairman Keith Karlsson, a business executive, was defeated for re-election by Doris Weaver, a retired labor official with the Communications Workers of America.

The upset at the county convention, which was held at Knightdale High School, was seen by some as a victory by the liberal/progressive/labor wing of the party.

"I think we changed for the better," said P.R. Latta, the veteran Democratic activist and former labor guy who backed Weaver. "We will come from the bottom up instead of from the top down."

Bill allows stiffer discipline

State Rep. John Blust still remembers the punishment he received at the hands of Mary Ella Moore Smith.

As a sixth-grader, the Greensboro Republican was something of a "cutup" and often got on the bad side of Guilford Middle School's strictest teacher.

"I can remember being dragged by my ear, getting paddled and standing with my nose in a circle at the blackboard," he said. "And all she had to do was call my mother and I got it even worse at home."

Similar punishments might run afoul of local school board regulations today.

But Blust recently filed a bill that would allow principals, teachers and aides the right to use "reasonable force" in order to "maintain order and proper discipline" in the classroom.

He says he wants to protect the Mrs. Smiths still working.

"Today, she'd be fired before her first day," he said. "And we sit and wonder why we aren't getting the academic achievement from students."