RALEIGH – One reason why North Carolina has so many problems, not all of them fiscal in nature, is that our politicians in Raleigh have too many ideas.

Now, don’t jump to conclusions. I don’t mean that they have too many good ideas. They just think they do. During the past decade, governors and lawmakers have introduced a dizzying array of “reforms” in such areas as education, childcare, health care, and transportation. These ideas get a cursory pass or two, and then the General Assembly ends up voting on them without a serious and probing investigation of the available research and experience from other jurisdictions that have tried them. Usually, the issue comes down to what looks good or what polls well. Likely outcomes and first principles get overlooked.

Former Gov. Jim Hunt worked this way. During his third and fourth terms, we “reinvented” education a couple of times, enacted a new quarter-billion-dollar subsidy program for child care (Smart Start), foolishly expanded the Medicaid program at least twice, passed a new program for non-poor children to get essentially free health care (Health Choice), tossed a billion dollars into teacher pay hikes without introducing real pay for performance, and built up a head of steam on two ridiculous and expensive rail transit systems, in Charlotte and Raleigh.

The result was a series of billion-dollar budget deficits.

Okay, new rule: let’s at least adopt massive new programs one at a time. That way, perhaps someone in a position of authority will ask some serious questions, like:

* Why should the taxpayers of North Carolina, most of whom purchase health insurance for their children, be compelled to purchase health insurance for the children of other North Carolinians who are not poor?

* Why should we build train systems designed to carry the commuters and commerce of the 19th century? Isn’t it the 21st century?

* Why should we pay teachers to go back to college to get master’s degrees? Given the sorry nature of teacher education, shouldn’t we pay our best teachers extra money if they will promise never to set foot in a college of education ever again?

* Why should middle-aged North Carolinians whose elderly parents have deceased be forced to pay for the long-term care of the elderly parents of other North Carolinians who are not poor?

* Why should taxpayers be forced to contribute to a preschool program that demonstrably does not improve children’s readiness to learn? Indeed, why should the majority of North Carolina parents who arrange for the care of their own preschool children at home be forced to subsidize the institutional day care of other, more affluent children?

Let’s stop hurrying through the legislative process and start asking some real questions for a change. Maybe a couple will get an answer.