"Rep. Charles Graham’s House bill that would establish a panel to study the use of American Indian mascots by public schools in this state was recently deemed the “Bad Bill of the Week” by the John Pope Civitas Institute, a conservative think tank.

The presenters of the award apparently don’t believe that legislators can keep more than a single ball in the air at once, saying HB 681 “directs scarce time and money away from serious issues and distracts already struggling schools away from their actual job of educating children.”

We agree that there are greater challenges facing legislators, specifically a budget shortfall that threatens to hobble this state’s educational system. But Graham’s bill, which would cost barely more than a dime and doesn’t require a substantial investment of time, simply creates a 12-person study commission to give the issue an examination.

Graham, as the only American Indian in the General Assembly, was the obvious pick to file the bill, doing so at the request of the state Commission of Indian Affairs."

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Editorial: Worthy of examination (The Robesonian 4/17)