Public Schools & Education

North Carolina used to be a leader in the South for public education. Now, North Carolina received an F in Funding Level per pupil and an F in Funding Effort compared to our fiscal capacity (per Education Law Center). Our state teacher salary remains the lowest in the Southeast and 43rd lowest in the country. Schools are faced with budget cuts across every department.

It has been twenty years since the State Supreme Court declared in Leandro v. The State of NC that every child deserves access to a sound, basic education and ordered $475 million be transferred from the state budget to public schools. The Leandro decision continues to be litigated in the courts, and Republican leadership refuses to accept the reality that teachers, parents, and school staff know all too well: public schools are suffering.

Republicans have directed all their attention towards policing classroom curriculum and enacting book bans, ignoring the fact that many schools do not have a school nurse or air conditioning in the hot months.

Our children, educators, and educational support staff deserve better. Over the last ten years with the focus on increasing charter school allotments and millions of dollars going to “opportunity scholarships” to private and charter schools, public tax dollars are being siphoned into private pocketbooks. We must invest in raising teacher pay, support classrooms with teacher assistants, ensure there is a nurse and counselor in every school, and restore masters pay.

Every child has the constitutional right to a “sound, basic education.”  I fully support that right and will do everything possible to fulfill that promise.