Governor Pat McCrory presented his budget and boasted it was the largest education budget ever.
But it isn’t true. Adjusted for inflation, North Carolina is spending half a billion dollars less than in 2008.
The fibs just kept on coming at a news conference.
“Gov. McCrory also repeated a claim he made as he signed his tax reform package into law that teachers making between $40,000 and $45,000 annually will actually get 1% of their earnings back, thanks to tax reform.
“But according to tables that accompanied the tax reform bill, citizens don’t get a 1% tax break until they have a household income of $250,000.
“McCrory also said that teachers are not able to get raises in this budget because of high Medicaid costs. He did not address the fact, however, that state revenue availability was reduced by $684 million over the biennium as the result of tax cut package he signed into law.
“When talking about the state of teacher pay, McCrory said that North Carolina ranked “in the 40′s” in 2010, just as we do now.
“Again, however, this does not comport with the facts. North Carolina actually ranked 27th in teacher pay in 2005-06 and has dropped to 46th in the nation in less than 10 years.
“Governor McCrory took no questions at the conclusion of his remarks.”
– See more at: http://pulse.ncpolicywatch.org/2013/08/01/mccrory-claims-nc-education-budget-largest-in-history/#sthash.VTz1cy2t.dpuf
Diane Ravitch's blog 
EduFraud.
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Sounds like NC needs a new Governor. Maybe one of the laid off teachers needs to run. Education and the health of the public school system affects everybody.
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Quite a few states need new governors. And all of those states have a lot of laid off teachers to chose from.
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This is O/T, but I think it shows that our governor is flaking out.
http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/07/30/3070385/mccrory-gives-protesters-cookies.html
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Rather like Marie Antoinette – “Let them eat cookies”.
Remember what happened to Marie?
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Larry King interviewed Michelle Rhee on RTNews’ Larry King Show. Larry’s show have become increasingly repugnant.
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So refreshing to see that the press is willing to confront McCrory’s lies in its reporting.
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Thank you Diane for continuing to show our unfortunate downward spiral in North Carolina. I feel positively betrayed by our elected officials. Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver would find this situation comparable to others he encountered on his travels.
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I can certainly see why he took no questions!!!
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To add insult to injury, NC teachers have until April, 2014 to complete their Masters in order to get the increment before it’s abolished. I am sorry, but this timeline is so unreasonable.
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Back in 2008, Indiana changed the way local funds were distributed to schools. Before 2008, local communities distributed their portion of the funds to their own school district. Then the law changed in 2008 & all those local taxes had to go down state & be pooled, then they could be sent back to the local school district. Daniels then claimed that he had increased the education budget, & that it was the largest line item in the state budget – but really it was all the same monies. Actually, at the same time, the education expenditure was reduced because of a 1% property tax cap added to our state constitution in 2008. It is still below 2008 levels. Since then, there have been about 90 school districts in our state that have had to take referendums to voters to make ends meet.
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I think Diane is being far too generous.
When a person – in this case, conservative Republican governor Pat McCrory – deliberate twists and obscures the facts regarding important issues – in this case, public policy in North Carolina – then all that distortion and obfuscation can hardly be described as “fibs.”
Let’s just call them what they are: lies.
And Pat McCrory has told the citizens of his state a ton of them.
Sadly, there are a lot more to come.
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What happened? Did the Tea Party come out of the mountains and elect a Republican? Gird yourselves. It’s just the beginning.
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Wouldn’t it be nice if teachers were equally as critical of President Obama supporting Common Core? Consider the cost each state must bare, as it be upwards of $500 million for NC….thanks to former gov. Bev. Perdue who adopted it WITHOUT the approval of our state legislature.
Before you are critical of NC…peel away at the onion to see the total picture.
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You must be new around here.
Check out some previous posts, you won’t find a lot of love for Obama in general and certainly not his Ed policies.
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Yep! I agree you are new around here. Not a fan of Obama, but I think you need to also do your homework because what NC is doing to NC teachers is disgusting.
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Teachers and principals and now school boards do NOT like Obama.
He is deplorable, despicable, and disgusting. But he does not by any means act alone, nor can he be held entirely responsible for what is going on in public education today.
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Oh, but he CAN be held responsible. Bush but the nonsense in place NCLB, but the President has kept it and added RTTT. And what he’s doing to education, he doing in every area. But, too late to take back your vote. Don’t blame me.
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Romney had the same exact plan. In fact, their plans for education were very similar.
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What is it that Goebbel’s once said: If you repeat a lie often enough one can get people to believe it as truth. I guess the governor is in good company!
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Just curious…what was the first President George Bush’s position regarding education?
I was in high school and started college while he was President and all I can really remember is that he started the war in Iraq (1991). What Presidents have we had who were education friendly?
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Perhaps Gov. McCrory needs to go back and take a basic math course I so his press conferences will include accurate numbers?
Either that or he should stop holding press conferences altogether and go back to this office and rethink his education policies.
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