The numbers define the tragedy across North Carolina:
1,700 classroom teachers and 2,300 teachers’ assistants
GONE!
Laid off because the General Assembly failed to adequately fund classroom teachers. With the layoffs, North Carolina plummets to 49th nationally in per-pupil spending.
The tragedy does not stop in primary grades:
Community college in-state tuition UP: 18%.
On the university level, 3,000 university employees: CUT!
University tuition costs rising: Faster than inflation!
The tragedy hits our communities. For example, Vance-Granville Community College has eliminated six faculty and three staff positions since July 11, 2011.
Another number: $863 million:
The estimated amount a three-quarter-cent sales tax next year would generate,
offsetting most of the $923 million cut from the state education budget in 2011.
Gov. Beverly Perdue included the sales tax in her budget last year. Republican leaders in the General Assembly dismissed her proposal.
The Governor is including the extra funding again in next year’s budget. I support the increase!
Governor Perdue is sacrificing a second-term in office to spend her last year in office fighting to make education funding a priority. A good education gives the tools for all our children to secure good jobs and lead a better life. Fully funding education keeps North Carolina competitive in the 21st century.
Without the sales tax, our children’s education will get even worse. Since the recession hit in 2008, school districts across the state have had to do more with less, and things are becoming desperate. “We are out of tricks up our sleeve,” said Doug Moore, assistant superintendent for business and finance with Franklin County Schools:
49 positions eliminated since 2008;
16 teaching assistant jobs lost in 2011 alone;
19 teaching positions phased out in 2009-10.
But Moore said the upcoming year offers the hardest challenge. The loss of jobs could be “larger than any thus far. It’s shaping up to be the most critical of all because of the loss of all federal support.”
In 2009 President Obama released $1.4 billion in federal stimulus funds to the states which included relief for K-12 and higher education budgets. That stimulus prevented the layoff of thousands of teachers, but now the money has run out.
The looming state cuts will add to the misery, especially in North Carolina’s less wealthy counties where local funding is limited. According to the Public School Forum of North Carolina, the state’s 25 wealthiest counties can draw nearly $1.7 million in taxable real estate to support each child attending school. The state’s poorest counties only have taxable assets of about $400,000 to fund each student. Without federal stimulus, and considering the limited ability of local governments to provide funding for education, if state government does not step in children will suffer.
It is not just Franklin County:
Vance County Schools: 33 teaching positions eliminated;
Vance County Schools: 7 teacher assistant jobs abolished; and
Warren County Schools: 10 teacher assistant jobs unfilled
School officials in Vance County predict 75 percent of service workers and office support staff will be lost if funding trends continue.
Granville County School loss projections for next year:
8 pre-K teachers,
12 K-12 teachers; and
9 teacher assistant jobs.
It gets worse ONLY if the budget remains as the General Assembly approved it. Without those added education dollars, our children will be left behind even as the economy improves. It will be a future of an uneducated—or undereducated—workforce or a future of preparing all of our children to participate in the 21st century economy. We can change the future if we simply make the commitment to invest in our children’s education.
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As always I welcome your comments on this newsletter or anything else that concerns you. My office is here to help in whatever manner we can. It is an honor to serve as your Senator, and I will do everything in my power to live up to that honor.
Sincerely,
Doug Berger
Thank you for your service Senator Berger. If this trend continues, our education system and our children are in dire straits.
Will the sales tax increase more than make up for the current budgetary short falls or will there still be sizeable layoffs? Like our Senator, I would hate to see the schools suffer further setbacks as it is a brusied and battered field already. My only hang up is that I wonder if this increase will be enough for years down the road or will the sales tax hike become the qucik fix-it if another gap occurs?
My grandmother taught for over 60 years and some of the most remarkable people I know are educators. They help mold each and every one of us. Talk about a thankless job…how many hats are teachers forced to wear everyday?
Please get the money that you need but at the same time be sure the sales tax increase is the proper way to do it. Our gas tax is outrageous and I do not want our sales tax to evolve in to that monster. Thank you for all of your hard work, Senator. I trust you will help guide us in the right direction.