Kim Otten: Spellings needs to speak out against HB2

New UNC system president Margaret Spellings has been handed a golden opportunity to help convince those who were skeptical of her hiring that she will truly advocate for the state’s public universities.

With the U.S. Justice Department’s ruling on House Bill 2, the UNC system stands to lose up to $1.4 billion unless the bill is repealed or the situation remedied (“Feds: HB2 violates Civil Rights Act,” May 5 news article).

I would urge Spellings to use every ounce of influence she has with the governor and the General Assembly to very publicly call for the repeal of this wholly unnecessary and discriminatory piece of legislation.

The legislature has been steadily chipping away at funding for public education in this state at all levels over the past several years and showing very little understanding of and appreciation for the importance of a well-educated citizenry. Losing multiple millions of dollars of federal funding would be disastrous on top of cuts already made.

Schools in the UNC system are of vital importance to the lives of North Carolinians across the state. I hope Spellings will use her leadership to defend them.

This story was originally published May 17, 2016 at 5:05 PM with the headline "Kim Otten: Spellings needs to speak out against HB2."