Join the movement to stop the privatization of public education in North Carolina! Stand up to the extremists in the legislature and the extremist governor who are band onion public education and vilifying the teaching profession..
This just in:
Advocating for high-quality public schools for North Carolina.
August 22, 2013
On Monday, August 26th, please wear RED for public ed!
North Carolina is on fire! People all across the state have joined us to “sound the alarm” and help us get public education budget facts straight. Thousands have gathered for Moral Mondays. Other rallies are popping up all over the state; here are three rallies scheduled for this Saturday, August 24th:
Alamance-Burlington Association of Educators Rally
Concerned Citizens Rally for Education – Hendersonville
Cumberland County Association of Educators Rally – Fayetteville
On Monday, August 26th, many traditional calendar schools across the state are opening their doors to start the new school year. NCAE and Public Schools First NC are asking everyone in our state to wear red to show their support for public education. You can also tie red ribbons on your doors, trees, and fences!
The General Assembly may not be in session and the school year may be beginning–but we can’t take our eyes off the prize!
We ALL must educate our friends and neighbors so they understand how and why privatization efforts threaten to bring public education to its knees.
Budget impact: local school districts respond
The impact of the biennial budget is being felt around the state. “Doing more with less” has been the mantra of educators as each new school year begins. But this year’s devastating cuts wreak even more havoc. Here are just a few stories:
State budget Cuts Mean 100 Fewer Teacher Assistants in Cumberland County Classrooms, Officials Say
Impact of NC budget Hits Home: 2 School Districts Eliminate 9 Teacher Assistant Jobs (Perquimans County and Edenton-Chowan Schools)
Local Schools Shuffling Employees Hours After State Funding Cuts (Cleveland County)
Gaston Teacher Assistants May Lose Jobs
What’s the impact in your community?
Public Schools First NC is interested in hearing directly from parents, teachers, principals and superintendents. What is the impact of education budget cuts where you live? How have the cuts impacted you and your family? How much are you spending on school supplies? Teachers: what have you spent out of your own pockets for your classrooms?
Send us a note at info@publicschoolsfirstnc.org
(Photos welcomed too!)
Be an informed voter
Know what’s on the ballot in your voting district. There are several school board elections across the state, as well as education-related bond referendums.
Public Schools First NC – PO BOX 6484 Raleigh, NC 27628 (919) 576-0655
info@publicschoolsfirstnc.org
publicschoolsfirstnc.org
Public Schools First NC | PO BOX 6484 | Raleigh, NC 27628
Diane Ravitch's blog 
No current layoffs per we, but changes in staffing are ridiculous!
We only have 575 kids in grades k-5. Two newly hired kg teachers were gone and replaced by Christmas, another kg teacher retired, a Title I reading teacher resigned on the last day of school, a 1st grade teacher transferred to 8th grade, another 1st grade teacher moved away, the counselor resigned in July, 4th grade teacher was moved to 2nd grade. Our district treasurer resigned in July. The stability that was there is gone. And this was an Excellent with Distinction district. Grade cards are coming out but won’t be applied until 2015. Just look at the upheaval in lives in a small rural/suburban community. And I don’t even know what changes were made at the other 3 schools. A bunch of us retired in 2010-2012, to escape the madness.
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Everyone knows how bad things are, I just think wearing red won’t accomplish anything. Nothing will change until teachers unite and stand up to those making decisions that are not in the best interests of children.
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catching the blue flu might be the only way our voices will be heard. How long will it take for legislators to find appropriate funding if schools were without their teachers for a few days? As Thomas Jefferson said ”
God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion.
The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is
wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts
they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions,
it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. …
And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not
warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of
resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as
to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost
in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from
time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
It is its natural manure.”
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Is anyone following this? Charter schools in Pennsylvania are suing to transfer federal money directly out of public schools and into charter schools. They’ve filed more than 200 lawsuits. The charter school lobbying group are denying they have any part in it.
http://www.mcall.com/news/local/mc-pa-charter-school-funding-0816-20130820,0,5326731.story#ixzz2chnmYxjR
It looks like federal law may preclude Governor Corbett from doing this, but I’m wondering what the game is here, and who’s behind it. Someone is funding these lawsuits.
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Not much morality in what they do. However I think there is a time coming where things may get out of hand and one of the ways of stemming this is to educate and that is where you teachers come in. You are underpaid and underappreciated. And while I don’t get the detail aside from you tell, I do know how great Mr Ader was. My sixth grade teacher.
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Amber, teachers and citizens don’t have any “power.” Many of you don’t understand how powerless we all are. It doesn’t matter what we wear, write or if we protest. No one cares. No one “important” cares. Unless you are very wealthy, or connected, it doesn’t matter what you think or do. That is what our society is, and to pretend otherwise is “fantasy land”. Unfortunately, like a Jew in Germany in 1943, or a Russian peasant under Stalin, you just have to take it and “suffer”. It’s not fair, but this is what happens in history. What country destroys its own school system? If you still want to teach, go to a private school or move abroad to a more sensible country. Charter schools are awful. I have friends teaching there, and you don’t want any of that. There is nothing “sensible” or “logical” that is going to happen in America, believe me. If you are young, you should move to Scandinavia or Europe. I felt real freedom and peace over there. Nostalgia brought me back here…That’s all. Nothing good will happen here for a long time. The teachers in the southern states are going to suffer the worst.
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