Lindsay Wagner is an excellent journalist at NC Policy Watch. She covers the legislature.
Here is her summary of the slash-and-burn policies that the legislature applied to public education:
1. Vouchers. $10 million set aside. This week, legislators will consider vouchers for students with disabilities. This is an ALEC priority, but ironically students with disabilities have greater rights and protection in public schools than in private schools.
2. Elimination of teacher tenure. Teachers now become temporary employees.
3. Teacher pay. NC teachers are among the worst paid in the nation. This legislation won’t help. “Teacher pay: no raises for teachers, who have only seen a 1% pay increase in the past five years. Supplemental pay for teachers who have master’s degrees is gone, with the exception of those whose jobs require advanced degrees. A scheme for merit pay is included, with highly performing teachers getting bonuses in the second year.”
4. Funding for teacher assistants was cut.
5. Class size limits were removed. Class sizes will grow.
6. Virtual charters: the state board is urged to give them another look.
The North Carolina legislature and governor are systematically dismantling the teaching profession and privatizing public education. These people are cultural vandals.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Stupid is as stupid does.
Great one, Zak. No kidding, “Stupid as stupid does!”
Arne must be so proud of all the glowing evidence of his shining leadership. Why with 2+ years to go, just imagine what he can accomplish.
Sounds like Oklahoma.
They’re really worse than vandals. The people who bring deform are folks who want culture all to themselves (and all the money too), they know what it is and have decided that the little people don’t need it. Detroit Art Museum comes to mind. Teachers never got with their dog eat dog paradigm so they’ve got to go too.
I am a teacher in the state of Pa. Teachers in your state of NC have to be treated with dignity and respect. Teachers dedicate their lives to helping children learn. Slashing programs, increasing class size, and no pay raises is ridiculous and unfair. Republicans should be ashamed of themselves to even consider such a bill!
GREED and INSANITY REIGNS…pure and simple.
And North Carolina people are standing up against the onslaught. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/23/moral-monday-protest_n_3639208.html
Many of us in the North have a hard time understanding the South, and why it does what it does. Why are southern schools always at the bottom? Why does the South jump on the bandwagon for corporate reform quicker than the northern, unionized states, etc.? There was movie maybe thirty years ago that explains a lot about the South. It is more of a documentary than a movie. I recommend that all those who don’t understand the South or why it does what it does, to see it right away. “Deliverance” After you see this documentary, you will have a better understanding of the South and why it is so different than the North. Enjoy! I believe it even won an Oscar for its depiction of the South.
That is ridiculous.
“Deliverance” is not a depiction of the south.
It is a Hollywood thriller.
Please tell me you are not a teacher.
And to understand the north, be sure and watch “Goodfellas”
When states do away with “tenure,” which should NOT be called that anyway, but still allow other civil service employees due process rights, teachers should be SUING the state legislatures for engaging in disparate treatment of a class of employees–teachers.
I would add I believe teachers don’t sue because they actually believe they have “tenure,” which they have never had, no matter what civil service protections are called. They think they have what amounts of “lifetime employment,” but they have never had that.
Civil service protections were put in both federal and state levels to prevent patronage hires and favoritism in treatment of employees. Not that it’s perfect, as we all know with rampant nepotism in hiring in many school districts, but it is there. A government job, including a public school teaching job, is considered a property right, and that right cannot be taken away without “due process.” It’s not the same as private sector work since the government is the employer.
We still have police, fire personnel, and other civil service employees who have “due process” rights, yet teachers are treated differently. Teachers shouldn’t even have an extended probationary period to begin with if other civil service employees don’t have it. This is clearly illegal in my book.
I am wondering whether it is really legitimate to think of teachers as “civil service employees.” Fire and police certainly are because they are dealing with licensed life and death. In one sense, of course, education is a ‘life and death’ matter, but not in the same way as police and fire. Moreover, teachers are not hired on the basis of a civil service exam. Perhaps they are in Finland.
Teachers don’t sue because they can’t afford it.
Did anyone else notice that we are also giving money to parents of children with disabilities who are being HOME SCHOOLED!
Is North Carolina still blind to the Koch brothers influence and how they control your States public education? “You people” look in all the wrong directions; every single one of you! WAKE UP NORTH CAROLINA and spread the word about the Koch brothers and trace their steps! Map out their influence if you have to and put it together like a puzzle. Good luck!!!
Then what?
Vouchers. $10 million set aside.
If private schools are better able to provide quality education, shouldn’t we encourage children to attend private schools? Or better said this way, there has been no increase in achievement despite increased levels of funding any where in America.
Elimination of teacher tenure. Teachers now become temporary employees.
I have been working in a very competitive and well paying job for 15 years now. No temporary employee label for me. Why would having teachers be held responsible be considered incredulous?
And now we are able to remove the worst performing teachers when cuts are made rather than the newest, who might actually be better teachers.
Teacher pay. NC teachers are among the worst paid in the nation.
Here I agree with you. A big step to increasing teacher pay is to reward merit and punish incompetence. Step #2 will go a long ways towards this.
Funding for teacher assistants was cut.
It saved teacher’s jobs.
Class size limits were removed. Class sizes will grow.
Depending on the grade level, smaller classes don’t increase achievement.
If the private schools and private school teachers do not have the facilities and training to accommodate the disabled students the 10 million dollars in funding are earmarked for, then these children will not be better educated. There is a very good reason that Special Education teachers have a specific license: they have had special training in the methodologies for teaching students with special needs. If you had a heart condition would you go to a dermatologist to treat it? Probably not. Like doctors, teachers specialize for a very good reason: children, like patients, have special needs. Private schools do not necessarily provide a “better education” for all.
Elimination of tenure will be a disaster for students, who will be exposed to a revolving door of teachers and no continuity in their classroom, a recipe for disastrous educational outcomes. Tenure is NOT a guarantee of lifetime employment; it is the right to due process afforded by law.
As for teachers being “held responsible”, consider this scenario: Mrs. Smith received a rating of “Highly Effective” according to APPR last year, so the principal decides to give her a class this year with half of the students reading well-below grade level. In addition, several of the students have been designated with special needs. Further complicating matters, Mrs. Smith has no teaching assistant this year, and more students in her class. Her students do not make the gains that her class last year made, so this year Mrs. Smith is rated “Ineffective” under APPR. Should she be dismissed because she’s a poor performer?
As for “merit pay”, no one goes into education for the financial reward. We become educators because we want to make a difference in the lives of students. My colleague who teaches a self-contained special education class has worked miracles with her severely cognitively impaired students, yet this progress is not measured by standardized tests. Is she less deserving of merit pay? As for “incompetence”, I have been teaching for 21 years and have taught in 6 different public schools. I have yet to come across a colleague who is “Incompetent”. By the way, I worked in the private sector for 8 years before I became a teacher, and I encountered a great deal of incompetence, which is one of the factors that led me to become a teacher.
This is not the profession that I thought I would pursue. My chosen profession has been RUINED!
I feel the same way!