North Carolina’s step-by-step war on public education
Here is a piece by a veteran educator on the assault in North Carolina. It was written by James Hogan, a former teacher who is now a writer and a funderaiser at Davidson College aas well as a board member of Our Schools First, a local public education advocacy non-profit. He taught high school English for five years, including AP Language and Composition, Creative Writing, and American Lit. As a school teacher, he was also a member of NCAE (North Carolina’s version of an education advocacy group), and sometimes worked with our school system’s administration as an adviser. He is a North Carolina Teaching Fellows alumnus (a now-defunct state scholarship program that granted scholarships to college students in return for their service as teachers in-state) and 2003 graduate of Western Carolina University. A version of this appeared on his blog.
By James Hogan
I am no fan of hyperbole, but I mean it when I say this: North Carolina is waging war against public education.
The pathway that brought us here has been paved with underfunded budgets, tactical strikes against public school teachers, fundamental changes in charter school operations, the diversion of public funds to private or religious schools, and the erosion of our hallowed University of North Carolina system. Here’s what’s happened.
A Deficit of Electable Proportions
When North Carolina Republicans took control of the state government in 2012, they quickly set into motion a sweeping agenda to enact conservative social reforms and vastly change how the state spends its money. It was the first time in more than a century that Republicans enjoyed such political dominance in our state.
When North Carolina Republicans took control of the state government in 2012, they quickly set into motion a sweeping agenda to enact conservative social reforms and vastly change how the state spends its money. It was the first time in more than a century that Republicans enjoyed such political dominance in our state.
What brought them all to town? A good reason: in the 2011-12 budget year, North Carolina projected a multi-billion dollar deficit, enough to rank the state among the worst budget offenders in the country and bring a new slate of elected legislators to Raleigh. So Republicans, with a clear mandate to clean up the fiscal mess in November 2012, set to work righting the ship.
On what does a state like ours spend money? Public education, including higher education, consumes about a third of North Carolina’s budget. Health and Human Services, including the state’s Medicaid and unemployment programs, composes an even larger slice, about 37.5 percent.
Other state programs make up little bits and pieces: nearly 8 percent on transportation and highways, 5.5 percent on public safety, 9 percent on natural and economic resources.
In other words, if you want to make big cuts, public education is one of two really big targets.
After that landslide election in 2012, legislators began sharpening their knives.
A Fury of Budget Cuts
Among their first targets: reductions in unemployment benefits, cuts to public schools, including laying off thousands of teachers, and a massive, nearly half-billion dollar slash from the University of North Carolina system.
Two years later, in the last budget cycle, 2014-15, the legislature providedroughly $500 million less for education than schools needed.
Later in the 2013 session, though, the most radical changes in state financing fell into place. Republicans reconstructed the state’s tax code, relieving the burden on corporations and wealthy residents. They continued to take aim at other parts of the education budget, cutting More at Four program dollars and decreasing accessibility for poor families. The state lost thousands more North Carolina’s step-by-step war on public education - The Washington Post: