State Democrats are doubling down on education as their major issue heading into 2016. While the General Assembly has passed contentious laws relating to abortion, gay marriage, and the environment, most Democratic communication is directed toward the legislature’s plans for schools.
Focusing on education is always a good message for either party because it cuts across lines that tend to divide people – urban/rural, rich/poor, black/white. Everybody wants the government to do a good job educating the future generation. Most people aren’t ideologues and even Republican-leaning voters can be swayed if convinced that their party is doing the schools a disservice.
The Democrats’ message on education was somewhat effective in 2014. They picked up several seats in the State House and it nearly cost Thom Tillis his Senate race. Democrats and Hagan made claims that Republicans had cut millions of dollars from the public schools. Tillis and the Republicans responded that the claims were false and the legislature had actually given teachers raises.
In the end, these competing messages left voters thinking that while Democrats might have been exaggerating, the GOP had not done a stellar job on education. But in light of national events that overshadowed the issue, voters decided to elect Tillis anyway and a Republican wave prevented more losses in the legislature.
The probable absence of such a GOP tide, along with high turnout in the presidential election, makes many Democrats hopeful that continuing to slam the legislature on education will be beneficial for them. The GOP should be prepared to face the coming assault, particularly Pat McCrory, who will be held accountable if the state is perceived as going backward in education.
The General Assembly realizes the importance of the education issue. Both the proposed budgets contain benefits for teachers. The House budget gives a 2% across-the-board pay increase for teachers and all other state employees. The Senate budget is more complicated and could provide larger raises but would also result in the layoffs of a number of teaching assistants.
Some conservatives argue that there’s no evidence that teacher assistants cause increased student performance, and the money should be spent to lower class sizes. Democrats say there’s no reason why the state can’t do both at the same time and that should be the priority instead of giving another tax cut to corporations. Conservatives respond that the tax cut is needed to revitalize the economy and create jobs. Et cetera, et cetera.
It remains to be seen how the debate will play itself out, and the General Assembly hasn’t even agreed on what course to take yet. But needless to say, education will be a major issue next year. The GOP will need to pass a budget that supports public education. The hard part will be communicating that message to the voters next year.
John Wynne is the “conservative voice” at PoliticsNC, where he also provides polling analysis and commentary on legislative campaigns. When not writing about politics, he enjoys gardening and listening to opera. Contact: johncwynne@gmail.com.
What is also included in the Senate budget that isn’t mentioned above is the Senate proposed to eliminate retirement benefits for teachers hired January 2016 and after. That means new teachers working for NC not only get pitiful pay but the Senate now does not want to pay for health care when they retire.
Clearly the Republican majority is anti-education on every level and especially out to gut public education. Getting rid of teaching assistants makes NO sense economically or instructionally. It means more unemployment, more building costs, and less individual attention for all children but particularly those most at risk. The state legislature’s animosity towards our educators and once great programs will cost us new businesses, and more importantly will cost our young people the training they need for both jobs and responsible citizenship. It is hard to fathom why they are doing this. It is not pro-business or fiscally responsible.
Here’s a little fact that you might find interesting. I’m an instructor at a community college in NC. From the time I was hired in 1997 until 2008, I received a raise every single year (and I have all of my contracts to prove it)! Between 2002 and 2008, my salary increased a total of 35% over that 6-year period. Between 2008 and 2014, it increased a total of 4%. We did not receive a raise in 2009 in the midst of the recession, and I think most of us understood that. Everyone had to tighten the belts at that time. To her credit, Perdue DID propose raises during her last two years but was stopped by the Republicans in the General Assembly. They may talk a good game, but what it comes down to is that the Republicans don’t give two shits about state employees. They need to start digging us out of this hole we’ve been in for the last 5 years. What’s overlooked, always, when they say “We don’t have the money” is that they cut income tax rates, which resulted in less revenue. That lost revenue wasn’t made up in the increased sales taxes they enacted.
My childrens’ school ran out of essential supplies – like paper – toward the end of the school year. Parents had to send in these supplies (a tax of sorts.) Teachers are unhappy at being without raises for many years. Experienced teachers get no real raise under new NCGOP plans. Teachers in NC top out at $50,000 after 20 years. NCGOP tried to promise raises as it tried to take away tenure. NCGOP wants to take away drivers’ ed now. NCGOP funnels public funds to private (religious) schools – at the expense of local public schools.
NCGOP HATES education – does not fund it – speaks disparagingly of anyone who is a teacher. We’ll see how this plays out at the polls… but given the fact that there seem to be no Democrats on the bench these days, perhaps it doesn’t really matter…
Honestly, how you can write “The General Assembly realizes the importance of the education issue. Both the proposed budgets contain benefits for teachers” and mean it (if you do) amazes me, John.
The 2014 pay raise hardly moved the needle on the state’s teacher pay ranking nationally (from 46th to 42nd), and provided no raise for the most veteran educators, who are arguably the most important members (as they are mentors for students and other teachers and also have the most teaching experience) of our educator corps. To some of these veteran teachers, that pay “raise” resulted in a cut as longevity pay was ended in favor of raising the pay for starting teachers. Per pupil funding in NC is now ranked 49th, and the state’s students population is growing faster than almost all the other 50 states. And the Senate’s budget proposal for teacher pay wants to again leave out any pay raise for teachers with over 25 years of service.
Face it, the GOP doesn’t give a damn about teachers and teacher pay, and hasn’t figured out –or doesn’t appreciate– the linkage between having a well-funded K-12 education system in place and the attraction of NC as a place for corporations and businesses to locate or expand. They only care about giving short shrift to public education in favor of exclusionary charter schools and state subsidized private school, which BTW, are where they’d rather send their own kids and make available for their donors’ kids.