Though Margaret Spellings doesn’t begin her tenure as the next president of the University of North Carolina system until March 1, she is already making decisions that give us a taste of things to come. And it’s a very bitter taste indeed.

There are many problems with Spellings’ appointment, not least of which was the Board of Governors’ shamefully secretive hiring process. But the core problem is that Spellings subscribes to a very troubling ideology, which holds that education is essentially a private and not a public good. Far from increasing efficiency, this belief risks transforming our state’s outstanding public university system into a second-tier institution, run by a handful of unaccountable millionaires with little regard for our citizens’ needs.




This is not the first time that wealthy individuals have used BCG to force their educational agenda onto the public. In 2012, BCG was paid $1.4 million for a study of the Philadelphia public school system, titled “Blueprint for Transforming Philadelphia’s Public Schools.” It subsequently received another contract worth $1.2 million. These funds, too, came partly from “anonymous donors” channeled through the William Penn Foundation and United Way. As a result, a plan of considerable public significance was contracted with minimal public scrutiny.

The subcontracting of education policy to a private, for-profit company is all the more troubling because BCG is hardly politically neutral. BCG embraces a highly partisan conception of education, one that is consistent with the views of Spellings, George W. Bush’s former education secretary. Specifically, BCG’s Philadelphia plan selected as many as 60 schools for possible closure, aggressively promoted charter schools, identified private companies that could replace the district’s unionized labor force and tied school success to inflexible “achievement goals.”

Yet again, Spellings has made it clear that she plans to end UNC as we know it. If UNC is to serve all our state’s residents and not just a few wealthy individuals who want to call all the shots, North Carolinians must write and call our Board of Governors and elected officials and tell them to terminate Spellings’ appointment.