In the on-going battle over the state budget in North Carolina, it’s become more and more clear that the Republican controlled legislature is more interested in dismantling our state education system than in making any real reform.
Here’s the latest from the NC State Board of Education President:
Breaking an Improving System
June 2, 2011
If we are going to have an honest debate about public education in North Carolina, we must move from political rhetoric to rational discussion. And it is time to look at the facts.
North Carolina’s system of education is not broken. In fact, North Carolina’s system of education is a model for states across the country. Under the state’s ABCs of Public Education, approximately 88 percent of schools met academic growth goals last year and nearly 40 percent of North Carolina’s public schools are in the top three tiers of performance. Students in the state have improved their combined reading and mathematics scores on the SAT by 20 points over the past decade. North Carolina’s average ACT composite score has been increasing steadily for the past five years and is above the national average. After years of steady increases, North Carolina’s graduation rate reached the highest level ever recorded in 2009-10, at 74.2 percent. We lead the nation in the number of early college high schools and National Board Certified teachers. Our More at Four pre-kindergarten education program is consistently recognized as one of the best state-funded pre-k programs in the country. And the list goes on.
Because of these many strengths and a strong record of improvement, North Carolina was selected as one of only 12 federal Race to the Top grant recipients. There is no question that education leaders from the federal government, other states and leading foundations constantly look to North Carolina to lead the way with innovative programs and best practices.
When you look at these facts, it is clear that the most recent version of the Senate budget will not reform a broken system, it will break an improving system. This budget is full of mixed messages, bait-and-switch games and smoke and mirrors. For example:
This budget proposes to add five days to the school year, but it cuts transportation funding. How will students benefit from five extra days of learning if districts cannot afford to fuel the buses that will get them to school?
This budget funds a study to determine what it would take to make sure all students are reading at grade level by grade 3, but it destroys programs that are already working to help our youngest learners. North Carolina’s More at Four pre-k program, for example, is backed by a decade of independent research that proves the program boosts test scores among at-risk students and closes the achievement gap. This budget cuts More at Four by 20 percent and moves it to the Department of Health and Human Services, severing the connection to K-12 education that has helped to make the program so successful. And, this budget removes funding for handheld devices that more than 6,500 elementary school teachers across the state have already been using to effectively track student progress so their students do not fall behind.
This budget aims to reduce class sizes in the primary grades by 1:15 in the next three years. We will never get class sizes this low. The current 1:18 class size ratio Senate leaders are basing their numbers on is not a reflection of what class sizes really look like in our schools. This is an allotment formula the state uses to fund teachers and it takes into account every teacher, including media specialists, arts, physical education and music teachers and others. For grades K-3, state law sets the limit for districtwide class size averages at 1:21, and schools may seek waivers from the State Board of Education if they have individual class size ratios that exceed 1:24. Due to budget restraints, there are no current limitations on class sizes in grades 4-12. It would take much more than additional teachers to get real class sizes down to 15 students, and we certainly will not get there in my life time, especially with these proposed levels of discretionary cuts.
This budget includes funding for 1,100 additional teachers and backs off slightly on an earlier proposal to eliminate all teacher assistants in grades K-3. Yet at the same time, the budget passes down an additional $124 million cut to local school districts. This is on top of a $304 million reduction schools must take that was already built into their 2011-12 budget. This means that local superintendents and school boards must find a total of more than $428 million in funding to return to the state before they begin the new school year. I served as a superintendent for 18 years and I know that there is no way to make this level of cuts without losing people. So while member of the General Assembly will claim that they are funding these positions, superintendents across the state will be firing teachers, teacher assistants and other school personnel that our students depend on. They will have little other options given that oftentimes 90 percent or more of public school budgets is devoted to personnel.
I used to be proud of education in North Carolina. I have invested my career in it and I have had the opportunity to meet so many good people who work to put the needs of our students first. These are the people who are behind the progress we have made in schools over the past 30 years.
Yet today, I am embarrassed. This budget is a disgrace, it does not put our children first and it will hurt our state. If members of the General Assembly drafted this budget with the goal to privatize public education, they should be honest about it. Don’t call this legislation a plan to reform a broken system when it is clear that all it will do is break a system of education that was improving and that was admired and recognized as innovative by people across our state and throughout the country.
Bill Harrison, Chairman
State Board of Education