Justin Parmenter is a teacher in North Carolina.
Here he writes about State Superintendent Mark Johnson’s budget cuts, which decimated Educator Support Services, a division that helps the state’s Neediest districts and students .
Johnson is an alum of Teach for America. He taught for a mighty two years.
What values are they teaching at TFA? Me first. Poor kids don’t matter. What would Betsy DeVos do?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I’m afraid to ask what Devos would do!
In my opinion, NO ONE with so little actual teaching experience should be making staffing decisions. My well respected administrators admitted to staff the more they taught, the better they could be at admin. They felt a good decade or more.
But what do we real educators know?
(A lot!)
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The study that “justified” the cuts was prepared by Ernst & Young LLP, not known for any expertise in education, just in cutting costs https://www.ey.com/gl/en/industries/government—public-sector/government-and-public-sector_transactions
The following were excluded from the scope of the Ernst & Young study. In this resect the study was rigged.
North Carolina Virtual Public Schools (NCVPS) with enrollments (mostly high school) the 2nd largest in the nation (Florida is first). “NCVPS partners with public, private, home schools and charter schools. For private and charter schools, the General Assembly has set up a system by which they pay some of their teacher money to the virtual school for private and home schooling. The fee is about $400 to take a course if the home school is the school of record. The family is responsible for that fee. If the public school is the school of record, they are responsible for that amount. Is it simply depending on where students live, based on their local school and how they feel about it.
So the audit did not take into account the costs of the virtual public schools, but it did find that North Carolina’s IT services were not coordinated and among the most expensive in terms of overall allocations.
Licensure division (four of these—counseling for “lateral” licenses. Ernst Young did not report on how this and other “talent-related functions,” should be managed. The lateral licenses are for people who pass some tests and get on the job credits pay. They may also take courses at the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching.
North Carolina Center for Advancement of Teaching. This is course provider for teachers with a Non-profit foundation to help with expenses, (assets about $1.4 million). Free professional development for teachers at four locations with an online component.
Residential Schools (three residential schools for students with hearing and visual impairments).
Innovative School District in the works. Basically this is a charter school takeover of low-performing elementary schools. The district has its own superintendent and acquires schools to manage from multiple locations in the state. The newly formed organization is affiliated with Team CFA, which manages 13 North Carolina charter schools. Between 2017 and 2020, the state will outsource the operation of five of the state’s lowest-performing public elementary schools to “qualified Innovative School operators.” The arrangement drains money from public schools, as reported here https://caffeinatedrage.com/2018/04/08/the-incestuous-school-district-isd-of-nc-follow-the-money-to-see-the-pay-to-play/ and here https://www.publicschoolsfirstnc.org/resources/fact-sheets/the-facts-on-innovative-school-districts/)
Someone should find out how much NC paid Ernst & Young LLP for this business plan, which did not address the issue of 173 charter schools with 21 of the these having no information due to school openings and missing data at the state level. p.13.
I do not live in the state but the report calling for cuts is all about cuts and not about how this influence what happens to students and teachers. See for yourself the fancy graphics and business lingo. http://www.ncpublicschools.org/docs/internalaudit/ey-operational-review.pdf
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Once again it’s a sad day for pubic education in North Carolina. The hits just keep on coming and who suffers?
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