Curmilus,
We have spent this week traveling across North Carolina on the “NC Forward” Tour with several of our colleagues from the House and Senate. The Republican budget has cut 6,308 education jobs in our public schools including teachers and teacher’s assistants. Our universities have seen more than 3,000 layoffs to date and out community college continue to lose support and have to increase tuition. This is why we have hit the road.
Our tour continues through Friday evening, but we wanted to take a moment to update you on our trip and tell you a bit about what we are hearing. So far, we have visited 15 cities and the concerns and questions from citizens have remained consistent from location to location.
Here are only a few of the highlights from our trip so far:
Highlight #1
Teachers, parents and students have all expressed concern about the impact of Republican budget cuts on public education in North Carolina. At almost every location it has been noted that North Carolina now ranks 49th in the nation in per pupil spending, below even Mississippi and South Carolina. Without fail, each time someone mentions this statistic, we hear a collective gasp from the audience. In Sanford, a local teacher called it embarrassing. We agree.
Highlight #2
We have also heard outrage about the Republican budget’s elimination of dropout prevention grants. In New Hanover County, school board member Elizabeth Redenbaugh noted how these dropout prevention grants had been working and how they were seeing marked improvement in their graduation rates as a result. It is unconscionable and short-sighted that Speaker Tillis and Senator Berger cut this program. North Carolina gains a significant economic impact by placing more graduates into the workforce, this should be a priority of our state, yet the GOP budget decided to reverse this progress.
Highlight #3
We were fortunate to be surrounded by an engaged group of high school students at Lumberton High School. The students were receptive and thoughtful. At one point, we asked the seniors in the room to raise their hands if they were considering becoming a teacher after college graduation. Rows and Rows of hands went up. We then asked how many had planned on applying for the North Carolina Teaching Fellows program and saw students raise their hands. It was painful to realize and share with these students that they won’t have the chance to apply to this wonderful program, as the Republicans completely eliminated it this year.
Highlight #4
Time and again we’ve heard from Superintendents, School Board members and local teachers about the devastating education job losses that have resulted from the GOP budget. Republicans continue to look citizens in the face and claim they didn’t cut a single teacher or teacher’s assistant. From report after report they are simply playing rhetorical word games.
In Winston-Salem, Forsyth County Superintendent Don Martin explained the situation by noting that the Republican budget handed down a $5 million cut to his budget. Education personnel account for 70% of his budget, meaning it is impossible for him to balance his budget without firing teachers and TA’s. Legislative Republicans are now trying to pass the buck and wash their hands of the mess they created. We won’t let them. The public won’t let them.
It has been a thrill to be on the road, listening to and learning from the citizens for North Carolina. We are looking forward to continuing the tour this morning in Western North Carolina and hitting eight more cities before wrapping up on Friday. We hope you will come join us if we stop by your community.
Sincerely,
Rep. Becky Carney
Rep. Earline Parmon
Rep. Ray Rapp
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