Gov. Bev Perdue fought for public education this [past] week while the North Carolina House adopted a budget proposal that would have a devastating effect on North Carolina’s future.
Gov. Perdue rallied with educators, visited schools and urged the General Assembly to consider the generational damage the House budget would cause to the state’s children and future workforce. Gov. Perdue noted the budget came during National Teacher Appreciation week.
“We celebrate our teachers because they are the men and women responsible for preparing our future workforce – for ensuring that the people of North Carolina remain competitive, sharp, innovative and smart,” Gov. Perdue said. “But, under the House budget passed this week – a vote taken without bringing educators to the negotiating table – North Carolina’s classrooms, colleges, teachers and children will become the victims of some staggering cuts.”
At Southest Raleigh Magnet High School, Gov. Perdue visited with students and teachers who said they were concerned about legislative budget cuts. Strong schools lead to a globally competitive workforce, which helps the state attract and retain business and industry.
Gov. Perdue noted the state’s legacy of investing in education, which helped transform North Carolina from an agrarian society into a high-tech, 21st century economy.
“There’s been no governor in history who’s walked away from that responsibility, and you’re not looking at the first,” she said. “I’ll work with them, I’ll try to come to compromise, but at the end of the day I’m not going to be a part of crippling education.”
As the House was finishing it’s work on the budget proposal, Gov. Perdue’s office received an e-mail from a mother in Chapel Hill. She had included a letter written by her six-year-old daughter, Amelia.
One can tell the state of a culture by how those without power are treated. If students voted, would they be asked to shoulder so much of the burden?
“devastating effect on NC’s future” – it’s getting deep Phil. Let’s just keep dumping money, with no limits, into the public school system. Keep all the administrators, no merit pay for teachers, teach teens about pregnancy in school, don’t change a thing just keep throwing money at the public school system – who cares that the tax revenue in the state and country can’t support the massive spending.
To villify the NC House, who was elected by your fellow citizens, for trying to take fiscal responsability for our bloated budget is very biased and doesn’t tell the whole story.
But I guess everything about public school education is sacred and heaven forbid some successful charter schools open and demand high standards of discipline and education from students that had been considered marginal by previous standards.
Dagny, I didn’t write this article, it’s a press release from the governors office
Thanks, Phil. It says….”by Phil Hart” but guess that means you posted, not wrote.
I agree that public education in this county has some serious shortcomings. North Carolina could start saving money by ending the End-of-Grade/End-of-Course testing system, and the federal government could put “No Child Left Behind” in the shredder. However, abandoning public eduation altogether is not a solution, unless your goal is to have uneducated, unemployable burdens on society in unprecedented numbers. If you want to tear down the system, you should have something to put in its place. Telling educators to do more with less without substantiative changes in how education is done can only lead to more of what you perceive as failure within the system.
Jason, isn’t it nice to be able to comment again?
A lot of things are starting to be nice again. Of course, if I get laid off I’ll probably wish I had kept the blog.
Maybe not.
I’d have to agree with Dagny.
what money is spent on education needs to be spent more wisely.
IMO..there is a whole lot of money spent on non-classroom expenses.
I also agree with Jason..scrap the No Child Left Behind act.
I do think that some sort of standardized test should be done.
The system is already producing “uneducated, unemployable burdens on society in unprecedented numbers”, and has for years.
How do we change this direction?
a Thomas Sowell perspective on education:
http://townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/2011/05/10/the_education_mantra
I like Mr. Feingold’s point as it breaks the current predicament down in terms all can more than likely understand. No fundamental changes are being made to the current system. The schools are being run the same way as they have been in the past but with less money. We saw that system struggle with adequate funding, did we not? In order to achieve real results with the cash they have on hand the implementation of new ideas and functions must commence. Save some money, do away with EOG testing. Hire some quality educators and allow them to shoulder the responsibility of educating the students. I am a product of the VC PSS and did fairly average on my EOG’s. It was not until after I got to college did I start realizing my potential in the academic field and in turn life as a whole. What I am saying here is if we can allow the teachers to begin reaching students in that sort of way now, we my be able to better our schools which will better our society. It may even inspire more to attend college and so on.