After serving four years as the president of the University of North Carolina, Erskine Bowles is calling it quits. Just days after his announcement, word came that President Obama had tapped Bowles to help lead a Washington commission that will look at the country’s astronomical budget deficit. One of the education policy analysts who follows the UNC system is Jane Shaw, president of the Pope Center for Higher Education Policy. In this interview, Shaw assesses the Bowles legacy, discusses why she wishes he would stay longer, and looks ahead to the type of person the UNC Board of Governors should consider as Bowles’ replacement. Then we turn to problems in North Carolina’s Medicaid program. A portion of the state’s Medicaid budget labeled ‘personal care services’ ran $10 million over budget every month during the first half of the state’s budget year. The program pays vendors to help the disabled perform such basic functions as eating and dressing. State Health and Human Services Secretary Lanier Cansler recently updated lawmakers on efforts to control the program’s costs. You’ll hear his comments, along with reaction from Rep. Van Braxton, D-Lenoir, and Joseph Coletti, John Locke Foundation director of health care and fiscal policy studies. Next up is a look at national politics and issues. Political pundits mention Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty as a potential Republican presidential candidate in 2012. Pawlenty recently visited Raleigh for the 2010 Emerging Issues Forum at N.C. State. You’ll hear what he told reporters about the Tea Party movement and education reform. That’s followed by a look at a movement to hold politicians personally accountable for their promise to stay in office for a limited time. Many politicians promise to spend only a handful of years in elected office. Some fulfill the promise, while others decide they like the perks and privileges of power too much to give them up voluntarily. That’s why John Skvarla founded the Alliance for Bonded Term Limits. Skvarla, who’s now the alliance’s chairman, explains how bonded term limits force politicians to pay a real price if they break a term-limits pledge. And finally, Terry Stoops, the John Locke Foundation’s director of education studies, offers perspective on the national uproar that has ensued over proposed changes to our state’s history curriculum used by North Carolina’s public schools. Stoops has read the draft proposal and provides facts about the changes and offers his recommendations for improving the curriculum. As the group begins work on a new draft, Stoops also provides information on how North Carolinians can stay on top of the changes and offer input.