Letter: Support public education this November

North Carolina used to be a state that prided itself on its education system. In 2000, North Carolina ranked in the middle of all U.S. states in education funding. But due to continual budget cuts since 2000, now we are at the bottom of the list of states in terms of teacher salary and per-pupil spending. What a decline!

In the matter of education funding, the N.C. GOP legislative leadership has shown their preference for reverse Robin Hood policies: They take from the poor to give to the rich. For over 20 years, the Republican leadership has blocked the Leandro school funding plan. Republican legislators fought tooth and nail to block court-ordered additional funding to help poorer school districts even when there was sufficient money in the state budget.

That is the “take from the poor” part of their effort. But now Republicans in the state legislature have put additional millions of dollars into their school voucher program. Started in 2013, the Opportunity  Scholarship program was initiated to provide private school vouchers for low-income families. The funding for that voucher program has grown dramatically, but income eligibility is now open to all, with the result that more than half the applicants have family budgets over $100,000 and less than 20% are low income. Average taxpayers will be subsidizing upper-income families to send their children to private schools. Here we have the “give to the rich” part of the equation.

Now, some Republican legislators might say that the voucher program is an attempt to improve education in the state by providing more choice and more competition. Then why does their program exempt private schools of all reasonable accountability measures? Unlike the public schools and unlike nine other states with voucher programs, these N.C. private schools have zero requirements for accreditation, teacher certifications, curriculum standards or required hours for student attendance.

If we are concerned about the quality of public schools, then the answer is to put more money into the schools, not take it out. For every child who leaves the public school system for private school, that district loses the entire amount of that student’s per-pupil fund allocation, approximately $7,400 per child. This results in millions of dollars in reduced funds available for public schools.

Education policy is definitely on the ballot this coming November. In the race for N.C. Superintendent of Public Instruction, we have Maurice “Mo” Green running as a Democrat. Mo’s life work has been in public education. On the Republican side, his opponent is Michele Morrow. She has homeschooled her five children and explicitly said she does not support public schools.

In a local Asheville race, incumbent Democratic House Rep. Lindsey Prather is running in a newly drawn Buncombe County District 115. Lindsey is a former public school teacher. She ran for office the first time because of her concerns about the decline of public education here in our state. In May, she was one of the main sponsors of HB 993, which would freeze the expansion of the private-school voucher program until public schools are fully funded. It would also require private schools to comply with the same testing requirements as public schools.

Whether you currently have a school-age child or you simply care about the quality of education in our state, then voting for candidates who promise to support public education should be top of mind this November.

— Diane Finn
Candler

Editor’s note: The writer reports being active in the Buncombe County Democratic Party to help to elect local candidates, though not in any specific candidate’s campaign.