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Spellings Brings Boston Consulting Group to Assess UNC Administration

By dianeravitch
January 13, 2016 //
7

Margaret Spellings, who will assume the presidency of the University of North Carolina system in March, will begin with a report from the Boston Consulting Group. The management consultants are known for their dedication to privatization and profit. They were advisors in the project that led to the elimination of public schools and teachers’ unions inNew Orleans. Spellings served as their education advisor after her stint as Secretary of Education in the administration of George W. Bush. In that administration, she was one of the architects of No Child Left Behind.

 

Although Spellings lacks any scholarly credentials (she received a bachelor’s degree at the University of Houston), she should be an effective fundraiser among wealthy conservative benefactors. Since ideological donors often give with strings attached, UNC faculty will have to be wary.

 

The faculty is not at all pleased. They know what is coming down the pike: NCLB at UNC, data-driven management, corporate reform, cost-cutting, job training. Will academic freedom be respected? Stay tuned.

Categories Boston Consulting Group, Higher Education, North Carolina

North Carolina: The Height of Chutzpah, as Charter Leader Knocks Use of Scholars’ Study

By dianeravitch
January 10, 2016 //
14

The leader of the North Carolina Charter Association, one Lee Teague, referred to the report on charters by the state’s Department of Public Instruction as “garbage,” because it cited the study of three nationally renowned Duke University scholars. The Lt. Governor Dan Forest is trying to withhold the report because it is too “negative.” He was hoping for something positive. The report found that charters are more segregated than public schools and less diverse.

 

For those who might be unfamiliar with the term “chutzpah,” it is a Yiddish word that means arrogance, or a combination of arrogance and ignorance.

 

P.S.: By using the term “scholars,” I am not referring to students in charter schools. I am referring to academicians who have a Ph.D. in their field of study.

Categories Charter Schools, North Carolina

Report Finds North Carolina Charters Less Diverse Than Public Schools, State Tries to Suppress It

By dianeravitch
January 10, 2016 //
11

In 2015, three distinguished researchers at Duke University studied charter schools in North Carolina and found that they serve a population that is less diverse and whiter than those who attend public schools. In addition, most of the charter schools are segregated. The Duke study was cited in a report written for Legislature by the state Department of Public Instruction. The DPI report was withheld by the Lt. Governor’s office, who said it was too “negative.” Lt. Governor Dan Forrest wants the report rewritten to show the good things about charters. He is tired of so much criticism. Forest joined the state board of election three years ago, and he constantly hears criticism of charters. (Wonder why?)

 

The report shows:

 

More than 57 percent of students attending charter schools in the current school year are white, compared with traditional public schools’ 49.5 percent, the report said.

 

The proportion of African-American students is about the same across both types of schools. A little more than 8 percent of charter students are Hispanic, while enrollment at traditional schools is more than 16 percent Hispanic.

 

The report also references an April 2015 study by Helen Ladd, Charles Clotfelter and John Holbein of Duke University that showed little integration within individual charter schools. Student populations at individual charters, their study found, are predominantly white or predominantly minority.

 

The state is trying to suppress the report, to try to spin it to get a positive outcome, but it won’t work. The authors of the report, distinguished academics, are not going to change their findings to please politicians.  The next post links to the full report.

 

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article53438435.html#storylink=cpy

Categories Charter Schools, North Carolina

Who Is Responsible for the Hatchet Job on North Carolina’s Public Sector?

By dianeravitch
December 23, 2015 //
1

The Charlotte News & Observer wrote an editorial calling attention to the excellent series of articles published by NC Policy Watch about the state government’s assault on public services.

 

There are many states where the governor and the legislature seem intent on closing down the public sector, but none has done as thorough a job as the state of North Carolina. It was once the most progressive state in the South, and it is now–in less than five years, since the Tea Party takeover of the legislature–the most regressive state in the South.

 

Every state should have an investigative journalistic project like NC Policy Watch, which reports without fear or favor with great fidelity to the facts.

 

The News & Observer editorial says:

 

The new majority stormed in with an agenda developed during long years in the minority, and the opportunity to make that agenda law was enhanced by the 2012 election of Republican Gov. Pat McCrory. Assessing how the consolidation of Republican power has shaped North Carolina depends on how one sees the role of government.

 

McCrory talks about a “Carolina Comeback” as the state economy has recovered from a deep and scarring recession. He and GOP legislative leaders say the recovery has been spurred by limiting state spending, cutting taxes and reducing regulation. But those who think government should solve problems, protect the vulnerable, assist the needy and expand opportunity for all see the years of conservative rule as a “Carolina Setback.”

 

That latter perspective is documented in a report published by N.C. Policy Watch, a division of the progressive advocacy group, N.C. Justice Center. The report, published in print and online, is called “Altered State: How 5 years of conservative rule have redefined North Carolina.”

 

Chris Fitzsimon, executive director of N.C. Policy Watch, said the five-year mark was a fitting time for an overview. The report offers articles on public spending, unfair tax cuts, reduced support for education, the politicization of the state courts, a rollback in environmental regulations, reductions in safety net programs and new limits on voting access.

 

Fitzsimon said putting the years of change between two covers creates a powerful picture. “When you take this as a whole, it’s stunning what has happened,” he said.

 

One of the report’s charts shows that during the last 45 years, state spending has averaged 6.1 percent of the state economy. That share fell when the recession hit, and has declined every year since. By fiscal year 2017, it’s projected to fall to 5 percent despite a growing state’s need for more services.

 

Another chart shows that tax cuts and changes since 2013 have saved those in the top 1 percent of income an average of $14,977, those in the middle 20 percent saved an average of $6 and those in the lowest 20 percent paid, on average, $30 more.

 

The governor and legislative leaders say they are spending more on schools, but the report shows that spending per student has fallen 14.5 percent since fiscal year 2008.

 

 

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/editorials/article50687995.html#storylink=cpy

 

 

Categories Accountability, Corporate Reformers, Education Reform, North Carolina, Privatization

The Wanton Destruction of the Public Sector in North Carolina

By dianeravitch
December 14, 2015 //
9

In 2010, Republicans swept control of the Legislature in North Carolina for the first time in a century. Two years later, a Republican governor was elected. Since then, the Republicans have sought to shred any safety net for anyone who needed it.

 

In this post, Chris Fitzsimon details the determined and successful efforts of the Republican majority to destroy public education and every other public institution in the state, turning the clock back many decades.

 

He writes:

 

With all three branches of government securely under their control, the ideological shift left few areas of state policy untouched. People who were already struggling have been hurt the most — low-wage workers, single mothers, people of color and immigrants. Vital life supports, such as child care subsidies, pre-K programs, unemployment insurance and food stamps, have been slashed.

 
And there’s been more than a loss of basic benefits. People living on the margins have been demonized in the last five years too, blamed for their struggles, penalized for their inability to find jobs that don’t exist, and cruelly stereotyped for political gain. The folks now in charge of Raleigh haven’t just made government smaller, they have also made it meaner.

 

Most of the money they saved from slashing safety net programs hasn’t been reinvested in education or job training or infrastructure. Instead, even as tax revenue has risen as the state recovers from the Great Recession, the savings have been given to corporations and the wealthy in a series of massive tax breaks.

 

Thanks to the anemic budgets of the last five years, North Carolina now spends almost 6 percent less on state services than in 2008 in inflation-adjusted dollars.

 

Now the folks in charge are pushing to lock in the woeful recession-era level of public investment by adding arbitrary spending limits to the state constitution in the misnamed Taxpayer Bill of Rights. In Colorado, the only state that has adopted it, it has been a disaster.

 

Nowhere have the cuts hit harder than in public schools, where rankings in teacher pay and per-pupil funding have spiraled toward the bottom of the 50 states.

 

Once recognized across the country for its commitment to public education, North Carolina now is making headlines for how much of it is being dismantled, with teachers fleeing to other states because of low salaries and the culture of animosity and disrespect from state leaders.

 

The meanness is evident here too. The nationally recognized Teaching Fellows program has been abolished, even as the state struggles to recruit bright students into the profession, merely because of its ties to prominent Democrats like former Gov. Jim Hunt.

 

Low-income kids and their families are the biggest losers in the attacks on public schools, but there are winners in the ideological assault: new for-profit companies that run charter schools, private and religious academies that now receive taxpayer funding and sketchy online institutions that are raking in state dollars.

The new ruling class in Raleigh, while professing a commitment to reduce the scope of government, increased its role in people’s personal lives and health care decisions, interfered with local issues in communities across the state, and pushed to resume executions even as two men were freed from prison, one from death row, after serving for more than 30 years for a murder they did not commit.

 

They made it harder for some people to vote but easier for many people to get a gun and take it into more places — bars, restaurants, parks and playgrounds. They have systematically rolled back important environmental protections, undeterred by the massive coal ash spill into the Dan River in 2014, the worst environmental disaster in the state’s history.

 

The radical transformation of North Carolina has prompted a passionate response in protest, as thousands have marched in Raleigh and across the state in the NAACP-led Moral Monday movement.

 

For all these reasons, the Network for Public Education will hold its third annual conference in Raleigh on April 16-17. Our keynote speakers include the leader of the Moral Mondays movement, Rev. Dr. William Barber. There is some scholarship money available for teachers and student activists.

 

Join us to speak out against the destruction of public education and the denial of basic human rights, in North Carolina and across the nation.

 

 

Categories Closing schools, Network for Public Education, North Carolina, Supporting public schools

North Carolina Faculty, Students Protest Spellings Appointment

By dianeravitch
December 12, 2015 //
5

Dozens of protestors swarmed the meeting of the University of North Carolina governing board, protesting the appointment of former Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings as president of the UNC system.

 

“The protesters — students, faculty, staff and others within the UNC community — come from a number of organizations, including the Faculty Forward Network, Scholars for North Carolina’s Future, UnKoch My Campus, the UNC Board of Governors Democracy Coalition, Greenpeace USA, Ignite NC and Progress NC.

 

“Leaflets passed out by the protesters said they want the Spellings appointment to be rescinded and for the school’s governing body to have a transparent process to find a replacement, a reference to what many said was a secretive process in the selection of Spellings. She was tapped last October to run the system of 16 universities, with 222,000 students, and awarded a $775,000 base salary for each of five years in a contract that also gives her deferred compensation of $77,500 annually and potential performance bonuses, and use of a presidential home.”

 

 

Categories Education Reform, Higher Education, North Carolina, Resistance

Star Wars in North Carolina

By dianeravitch
December 3, 2015 //
6

 

Stuart Egan is a high school teacher in North Carolina.

 

He writes:

 

 

Film and literature often depict human nature in precise ways, mimicking real life situations in colorful methods and allowing us to view ourselves more objectively through the eyes of others.

 

In fact, the converse can be true as well; real life is the stuff of film. Have you ever had a notion that the reality transpiring right in front of you is literally out of movie? Then maybe it is no wonder that the new installment of the Star Wars movies (The Force Awakens) seems like a new metaphorical chapter in the war in North Carolina to protect the sanctity of public education against the dark side of reform.

 

Truthfully, it’s not just the new episode of Star Wars that aptly depicts the fight between politics and public education. All of the movies contain memorable comparisons to what is happening in the struggle of the educational Rebel Alliance against the political Dark Side.

 

One simply needs to closely follow North Carolina’s regression in the last few years and you can witness a wonderful example of how the plot lines of the Star Wars movies appropriately mimic the actual events taking place in the political landscape of North Carolina today.

 

Just take a few of the iconic quotes given by those memorable characters and insert them into the epic that is North Carolina and you will plainly see that film really does imitate life.

 

As a veteran public school teacher, I know that the most sacred part of education is the student – teacher relationship. There is a power in the exchange of knowledge and the nurturing of skill sets. It is kind of like using the Force to train new Jedi to help protect the republic from sinister powers. Remember the Force? Here’s the actual definition from Obi-Wan Kenobi, who happens to be a great teacher. He says,

 

“The Force is what gives a Jedi his power. It’s an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us; it binds the galaxy together.”

 

However, when there is money to be made by profit-minded entities, many in power turn to the Dark Side and manipulate the Force for personal gain. Look at all of the charter schools that lack transparency and take state money to create favorable situations for just a few, especially its board members. Look at the virtual academies run by profit-minded companies. Look how many new “private” schools have been created in response to the Opportunity Grants.

 

Yet when these profit-minded reforms are questioned, lawmakers aligned with the Dark Side clothe themselves in a robe of righteousness, swear they are doing the will of the people, and ultimately scold those who question their intent. It sounds like Darth Vader’s great quote from the first Star Wars movie.

 

“I find your lack of faith disturbing.”

 

Actually, I find the lack of faith in teachers and public schools disturbing. With new legislation that designated more schools as being “low-performing,” we are seeing how the Dark Side is propagating the idea that we need to have more reforms. But there is something distressing about the timing of this. It’s the year before major elections and it seems that the GOP-led NC General Assembly and the Governor’s Office will take major steps to show great improvement for the 2015-2016 school year to give the facade that they are doing good work. But in the immortal words of Admiral Akbar in The Return of the Jedi,

 

“It’s a trap!”

 

What has played out in the past three years is a methodical dismantling of the public education system. Monies, resources, and benefits have been eroded away to create an environment of dependency on false reforms. Furthermore, the move to discredit teachers and educators through the removal of due-process rights and graduate degree pay along with shoddy teacher evaluation protocols have harvested more fear than real progress. And the greatest of teachers, Yoda tells us in The Phantom Menace that,

 

“Fear is the path to the dark side.”

 

It is this false fear that public schools are the root of the problems which plagues North Carolina and drives the actions the NC General Assembly in “reforming” our public school system. If the NCGA can convince the public that there is a reason to fear, then the NCGA has the opportunity to convince the public that it has the solution. So far, the solutions have resided in arbitrary testing and robotic curriculum practices. And those kinds of reforms are exactly what Obi-Wan Kenobi refers to when he states,

 

“These aren’t the droids you’re looking for….”

 

In fact, even many of the writing tests that are administered (as well as the standardized multiple choice tests) are created by outside entities and evaluated by computers and software designed by for-profit companies. The role of the teacher is then further severed like a disturbance of the Force. Even a droid can tell you that that is not good for education like when C3PO tells R2-D2,

 

“R2-D2, you know better than to trust a strange computer!”

 

Ever since legislators started removing the human element from education by decreasing teacher to student ratios, the dependence on non-educators to mold and shape pedagogical policy has increased. That means more lawmakers are taking on the business approach to remedy the very problems they have created. That translates to more contracts with testing companies to impersonally rate student achievement and teacher effectiveness without giving feedback on what would constitute good teaching. What happens is that people without educational experience are dictating what happens in classrooms more than those who do have the proper experience and knowhow. Han Solo makes this point in the 1977 release of A New Hope. He tells Luke Skywalker,

 

“Traveling through hyperspace ain’t like dusting crops, farm boy.”

 

And it isn’t. Traveling through hyperspace is not for those who have never been in a spaceship before. A wookie could tell you that. Additionally, reforming public education in North Carolina is not a job for those who have no idea what a classroom is like. Teachers and educators see that increased human interaction between a teacher (especially when experienced and respected) and student can overcome great odds, even ones derived by computers in valued added assessment models like EVAAS.

 

When C3PO tells Han Solo that he cannot fly through an asteroid field, he does not put into consideration who is doing the piloting. The droid states,

 

“Sir, the possibility of successfully navigating an asteroid field is approximately 3,720 to 1.”

 

But Solo is an expert. He’s like an experienced veteran teacher in the classroom and he is confident. That asteroid field is akin to all of the obstacles placed in front of teachers (increased class size, too many standardized tests, expanded duties, etc) as they try and do their job. Han Solo and his crew make it through to Cloud City. But of course the Dark Side catches him and puts him in a deep freeze, much like the salary scales of experienced teachers in North Carolina. Fortunately, he is rescued later by guess whom? Yes, a Jedi taught by the greatest of teachers.

 

This next election cycle really starts now. With more people putting their light sabers into the mix, we need more than ever to stand up against the Death Star that hovers over West Jones Street in Raleigh and bring North Carolina back as the model of progress it was before the rise of the Dark Side. This requires actually educating yourselves on the issues and practicing your rights to speak out, speak up, and speak to. It also means to vote. One cannot be passive – Yoda instructs us on that (with his inverted syntax).

 

“Do. Or do not. There is no try.”

 

Our state has lost a lot of teachers due to the current political environment. Some leave because the stagnant salaries will not allow them to raise families in the way they wish. Some leave because of the simple lack of respect. The new state motto “North Carolina: First in Teacher Flight” is a reality, and we just cannot clone effective teachers like storm troopers through programs like Teach for America. We need our teacher education programs in our colleges and universities to be invested in, not divested from.

 

But I am hearing more and more teachers speaking about how they will not leave; they are staying to fight the fight. It’s just like Obi-Wan Kenobi when he looked Darth Vader in the eye and calmly stated,

 

“You can’t win, Darth. Strike me down, and I will become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.”

 

That’s the attitude that we need to have, as teachers, educators, and advocates for public education. This fight is far from over and why should we keep fighting for our schools? Because while Darth Vader may claim to be my father, all of the students in North Carolina’s public schools are our children and Yoda states,

 

“Truly wonderful the mind of a child is.”

 

So…Grab your closest wookie and ewok friends. Hop on your land speeder, X-wing fighter, or Millennium Falcon and go to the polls this next election cycle. Educate yourselves about the real issues surrounding public education. Like a great teacher, Yoda instructs us well when he says,

 

“In a dark place we find ourselves, and a little more knowledge lights our way.

 

Send messages to others through your droids, see past the Imperial rhetoric, stand up against the Greedos and the Jaba the Huts and,

 

“Always pass on what you have learned.”

 

And last but not least, always remember…

 

“The Force will be with you, always.”

 

 
Stuart Egan, NBCT
Public School Teacher
Jedi-In-Training
West Forsyth High School
Clemmons, NC

Categories North Carolina, Teachers

UNC Faculty React with Ire to Margaret Spellings’ Appointment, Ties to For-Profit Colleges

By dianeravitch
November 11, 2015 //
27

Faculty members, staff, and students are unhappy with the selection of Margaret Spellings as the new president of the University of North Carolina. Her experience as Secretary of Education for President George W. Bush propelled her into this position.

In this article, two faculty  members–Altha Cravey,  associate professor of geography at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Robert Siegel, associate professor of English at East Carolina University–challenge Spellings’ lucrative association in recent years with predatory for-profit institutions and a debt-collection agency. They believe that her background does not fit the needs of a world-class institution that seeks to provide high quality at relatively low costs for students.

They write:

UNC needs a president who will help the university system continue to give students the best education possible while avoiding unnecessary tuition hikes. Unfortunately, Spellings’ background of supporting for-profit colleges who prey on students – and then profiting off those same students when they default on their loans – suggests that she and the Board of Governors have very distinct priorities.

Spellings made over $330,000 working for the Apollo Group, the parent company of University of Phoenix, a for-profit online college that has been widely criticized for taking advantage of its students and delivering poor results. Although federal education funds account for nearly 90 percent of the company’s revenue, graduation rates were as low as 4 percent under Spellings’ tenure.

IN A STATE THAT CLAIMS TO VALUE PUBLIC EDUCATION AND PRIDES ITSELF ON A TOP-NOTCH UNIVERSITY SYSTEM, STUDENTS SHOULD NOT BE VIEWED AS “CUSTOMERS” TO PROFIT FROM AND THEN DISCARD.

The Apollo Group’s corporate goals are to increase shareholders’ profits by lowering standards and raising admission and fees. The company has even come under fire for targeting veterans to obtain G.I. Bill funding. After a federal investigation into the Apollo Group’s practices, the for-profit company laid off 600 workers and closed 115 “campuses” – while its founder received a $5 million “retirement bonus.”

The investigation found that students who attend for-profit colleges end up defaulting on their student loans at nearly three times the rate of students who attended public and nonprofit schools. As a result, nearly half of all student loan defaults nationwide are from students who attended for-profit colleges.

That’s why it is particularly troubling that Spellings also served as board chair of the Ceannate Corporation, a student loan collection agency. Student loan debt now accounts for the highest percentage of consumer debt, and despite widespread calls to reform the student loan industry, Spellings and the Ceannate Corporation have simply profited off of it….

Spellings’ defense of for-profit colleges is perhaps just as disturbing as the predatory practices these institutions use to fleece students. “(For-profit colleges) invented higher education in a way that was more convenient for working adults, and many in traditional higher education have responded,” she told the Board of Governors. “The reason I did it was because I learned a lot about how we can serve our students and think of them as customers in providing a product in convenient ways for them.”

In another article, Glenda Elizabeth Gilmore, a professor of history at Yale University who holds UNC degrees, cites statements that Spellings has made recently and in the past that cast doubt on her willingness to welcome gay students and faculty on campus. Gilmore insists that Spellings must publicly accept UNC’s non-discrimination policy  or resign.

Spellings seems unwilling to do that. When asked at the news conference about her past comments regarding gay citizens, she responded, “I’m not going to comment on those lifestyles.” Then she explained her demand as secretary of education that PBS refund federal money spent on the animated program “Buster the Bunny” because it included four gay characters among many. Her opposition, she said, was “a matter of how we use taxpayer dollars.”

Part of her job as president of UNC will be to “use taxpayer dollars” to foster a welcoming environment and combat discrimination based on sexual orientation. Moreover, she actually has the responsibility to “comment on those lifestyles” by demonstratively welcoming them to UNC.

 

 

Categories For-Profit, Higher Education, North Carolina

Margaret Spellings Chosen as New President of the University of North Carolina

By dianeravitch
October 23, 2015 //
59

Former Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings has been chosen as the new President of the 17-campus University of North Carolina system. She will be paid $775,000. Spellings was Secretary of Education during the second term of President George W. Bush.

Spellings has a B.A. in political science from the University of Houston.

According to her Wikipedia biography,

Margaret Spellings earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from the University of Houston in 1979 and worked in an education reform commission under Texas Governor William P. Clements and as associate executive director for the Texas Association of School Boards. Before her appointment to George W. Bush’s presidential administration, Spellings was the political director for Bush’s first gubernatorial campaign in 1994, and later became a senior advisor to Bush during his term as Governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000….

In September 2005, Spellings announced the formation of the Secretary of Education’s Commission on the Future of Higher Education, which has also been referred to as the Spellings Commission.[11] The commission was charged with recommending a national strategy for reforming post-secondary education, with a particular focus on how well colleges and universities were preparing students for the 21st-century workplace. It had a secondary focus on how well high schools were preparing students for post-secondary education. Spellings described the work of the commission as a natural extension into higher education of the reforms carried out under No Child Left Behind, and is quoted as saying: “It’s time we turn this elephant around and upside down and take a look at it.”

The new president of the distinguished UNC campus has no record as a scholar, has no advanced degrees, and is prepared to bring NCLB reforms with her. Good luck to all!

Categories Higher Education, North Carolina

North Carolina: GOP Legislators Transfer Funds from Public Schools to Charter Schools

By dianeravitch
September 24, 2015 //
11

NC Policy Watch reports on the North Carolina legislature’s latest attack on public education. Its assault was enacted by spurning the democratic process, ramming through a funding bill that few legislators had read or understood. The bill is probably a violation of federal law and should be challenged in court.

“Senate leaders unveiled a proposal in the Senate Finance Committee Monday afternoon that would divert more funding from the majority of local school districts across the state to charter schools, including federal support for transportation and school lunches that many charters don’t even provide.

“The proposal appeared out of nowhere as a bill about school playgrounds was gutted and replaced with the controversial charter school funding provisions, a version of legislation that passed the Senate months ago but stalled in the House.

“Very few people seemed to know the charter bill was coming, including public school officials and most of the committee members themselves.

“A representative of the school administrators association, also blind-sided by the proposal, told the lawmakers that it would adversely affect their local schools and that their school officials would be strongly against it.

“That didn’t deter supporters of the funding change, led by Senator Chad Barefoot, whose only answer to every question was that the “money should follow the child,” a talking point that is not only an oversimplification, but a statement that makes little sense if a charter school is receiving federal funding for services it doesn’t have to provide or if a student attends a school outside a special tax district.

“Senate Majority Leader Harry Brown admitted he was confused by the effect of all the complicated provisions transferring money from school districts to charters and he wasn’t the only one.

“Even Barefoot acknowledged that he wasn’t an expert on the legislation and was handling it because Senate Education Chair Jerry Tillman was absent due to a death in family.

“The confusion of committee members and Barefoot’s inability to adequately explain the complicated finance changes didn’t seem to faze Finance Chair Bob Rucho who called for a vote on the surprise legislation anyway, brushing aside questions from committee members by telling them that the staff would provide the requested information to them.

“In other words, lawmakers would vote before they understood the actual consequences of what they were voting on, how much it would cost their local schools and whether not diverting federal funding violated the law.”

Chris Fitzsimon writes:

“The misguided plan is the latest evidence that Senate leaders have never met a charter school bill they didn’t like.

“They always seem to start with the same assumption, that charter school advocates are always right, that charters are always superior to traditional schools in their own district and that charters deserve more and more funding….

“It hasn’t turned out that way. Many charter advocates and most of their supporters in the General Assembly aren’t looking to innovate anymore.

“They are looking to compete and win and then dismantle and replace the traditional public schools they never fully supported. The legislation unveiled this week is their latest mode of attack.”

The legislators and governor in North Carolina are vandals, stealing from the many to benefit the few.

It is events like this that persuaded the Network for Public Education to hold its next annual conference in Raleigh, North Carolina, on April 16-17, 2016.

Our keynote speaker is the great Rev. William Barber, founder of Moral Mondays, which organizes weekly demonstrations against the racist, exclusionist, privatizing agenda of the North Carolina legislature.

We will be there to learn from and support parents, educators, and concerned citizens who are appalled by the demolition of public institutions and outraged by the abuses of power that are exhibited on a regular basis by a legislature that puts profits over people.

Join us!

Categories Charter Schools, Funding, North Carolina
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