Talk about stepping on a message. While Pat McCrory is desperately trying to convince the public that the GOP does, in fact, care about teachers, some of his Republican colleagues in the legislature are making the case that teachers are overpaid and have it too easy. Those honorables are running contrary to public opinion, but with their heavily gerrymandered districts, they are free to speak their minds.
And that’s the conundrum the Republicans find themselves in. McCrory knows that his popularity, and the legislature’s in general, took a big hit because of last year’s contentious legislative session. However, his efforts to rehabilitate the GOP brand is being hampered by true believers who are out of touch with most North Carolinians but have nothing to worry about in their safe districts. That gerrymandering seems to have some unintended consequences.
Of the issues that most offended voters, the assault on public education struck the broadest chord. While voter ID most angered African Americans and voting rights activists-types and the restrictions on abortion fired up pro-choice women, education is the third rail of North Carolina politics. Like Medicare and Social Security at the federal level, our public schools, universities, and community colleges are viewed as an essential part of our lives and our livelihoods. They’re sources of pride but they are also vehicles for an escape from poverty. In a state that’s struggling to transition from a textile and agricultural economy to a more diverse one, education is seen as a ladder of opportunity that’s offered to everyone.
In some rural counties, the school system is the largest employer and teachers are among the most respected leaders. They are seen as a source of knowledge and the key to helping children of less fortunate families find a better life. Our universities and community colleges offer graduates of public schools an affordable education that transitions them into a work force with the skills and resources to succeed. And our leadership on education in the South and even the nation has been a source of state pride.
In this context, the GOP is missing the boat. McCrory sees education and teacher pay as a political issue and way to improve his dismal approval ratings. The Republicans in the legislature, though, are telling us what a strong contingent of the GOP really believes. Both are a stark contrast to a general public that views public education as a necessity and investment in their children. Republicans have grabbed the third rail of state politics and are probably going to get burned.
Thomas Mills is the founder and publisher of PoliticsNC.com. Before beginning PoliticsNC, Thomas spent twenty years as a political and public affairs consultant. Learn more >
There are plenty of teachers in my school who vote Republican, and it isn’t about their views on education. They vote Republican because of religious affiliation. This Republican attack on education is new to them, so they are stunned. As for me, one of the lone Democrats at my relatively rural school, the writing has been on the wall, and I’ve been trying to tell them….. And maybe, just maybe, a few of them are irritated enough to vote for a “D” in the upcoming election… but it won’t be all of them by a long shot. It’s a pity.
http://www.rethinkingschools.org/special_reports/bushplan/righpro.shtml
That article was written in 2002. So in hindsight, what has come to pass is rather sobering, since it is based on the events from 2000 forward two years with regard to Republican policy toward education, the goals, the machinations of the process, and who the formulators of that policy are/were. Not the least of which is vouchers. I don’t have to say why that word rings with hollow resonance here in North Carolina in 2014.
If your colleagues want to cut their nose off to spite their face, that is certainly their little decision to make. But to stand flat footed and pontificate ignorance of what has been taking place with Republican leadership on a national level with regard to education…and do it with a straight face; wow. To be fair, not all republicans think in that manner. But they are a minority in that grouping.
All of these experiments in social policy change, and they are experiments since they are essentially untested hypotheses, have a price. The people pay that price regardless of whether the experiment succeeds or fails. So the stakes depend on each being quantified as successful since this is typically the basis for re-election. Case in point, unemployment. Who knows for certain if the true number of people working or not has went up or down since the true answer is convoluted in statistics and skewed analysis by those who present pieces of the picture rather than the entire dataset.
So without drifting too far into the void, the price here is the education of our young people and how it is to be paid. We know who is going to pay it, but by how much and will the people actually derive an education from the expenditure, or will the money allocated be squandered on theories and then more money spent to quantify them? Remembering of course that the clock doesn’t stop running. Are we going to continue to educate and graduate generations that are functionally illiterate? That haven’t even been taught how to write their own names as I so often hear, “…in cursive?”
The people that control the money and are making the spending and policy decisions don’t want educated people. They are only interested in obedient workers. They don’t want people smart enough and educated enough to think about policy and the decisions being made and how it may adversely affect them and their lives. And if you listen to their rhetoric, you will hear that underlying current of thought. “…local control; jobs; incentives to companies; least organized State in the union.” A lot of the school boards think the same way. They want Johnny just smart enough to work for the local corporate entity, pay his taxes, and stay his entire life in that county, and to never leave. Does that work for some people? Sure it does. But why is everybody being dumbed down in this self serving paradox as a result?
That, in a bottom line analysis, is what your colleagues are supporting; passively, knowingly, or ignorantly on the basis of a singular hot button issue. I’ll get off my milk crate now.
Agreed, all the way through. But, for a little while here, the government sort of stood up for education, and they made a few bipartisan stabs at supporting public education. Even without a union, teacher pay here wasn’t bad, for a while. Everybody just figured that no matter what, we had to have schools, so nobody would screw with them too much. Were they ever in for a shock. I moved here from Florida, where education was already a huge partisan affair…. they just couldn’t understand that it was headed this way. And with no union, no protection, no bargaining units, the screws twisted tight and fast. But, as long as their legislators will fight against abortion and gay marriage, and for guns, there will be plenty of republican votes, even from my colleagues. They just can’t figure out the straight line between the republicans and their ever shrinking paychecks…. it’s like Stockholm Syndrome or something.
Those concessions were made looking at the big picture. “Oh no, WE support public education; vote for us. Oh no, WE would support teachers; vote for us. Oh no, WE support fair pay for teachers; vote for us.” The common thread is, “vote for us.” Well, they did. See, they don’t explain those things or define them. Meaning is inferred by the listener and attuned by their understanding of what is being talked about. Support for education. Understood as being positi
Frank, I’ll guess that Republican teachers will stand with those who say that Dems, pre-2010, are more to blame for the sad state of public education funding in NC. They would be wrong, of course, because, after 3 years of GOP legislative rule, the enmity and lack of support shown teachers and their schools by many NCGA GOP’ers and their leaders has never been worse or more widespread.
My greatest disappointment has been that few “reasonable” Republicans came forward to challenge some of those most offending incumbents this year. Are there no “reasonable” Republicans out there? Also I am frustrated that many of our public school teachers are Republicans and/or voted for Republicans in the past. I don’t get it.
I too agree that removal of Republicans (and Libertarians, and TPer’s) from elected state office in NC will be incremental and slow. Hopefully, a few important silver linings will come out of the 2014 elections, and more progress will be seen in 2016 and 2018, as gerrymandering impacts and strangleholds tend to weaken during their decadal course of life (people move, neighborhoods transition, new housing fills with new residents, etc). And of course, elected GOP’ers have shown some knack for making statements that might alienate even some of their ardent supporters (Rucho on ACA; Rabon on puppy mills; Curtis on teachers; and Tucker of “I am the senator, your are the citizen, you need to be quiet” fame). But, the real force will be in overall demographics. Baby boomers will pass on; immigration into NC from northern states will continue; younger voters and growing minorities and new citizens will hopefully register to vote. I only wish the state Democratic Party apparatus was not as dysfunctional and divided as it now is.
I agree with nearly all of your analysis, Thomas, except perhaps that they’re going to get burned. The political world is so partisan right now, I’m afraid they just may get away with it. The far right has come to view public education as Just Another Communist Plot!, er, um, I mean, Just Another Socialist Plot!
And make no mistake, the far right is calling the tune for the NC GOP. With moderate GOP representation only a fond memory, what’s to stop the GOP from using public schools as a whipping boy until 2022? You and I have looked at the numbers required to overturn the GOP majorities in either the House or the Senate of the NC Legislature. It will take quite a tailwind for the Dems to grab either.
You suggest that GOP sponsored cuts on school funding will hurt them politically, but I have to ask just how. I think McCrony is pretty much already a goner: Roy Cooper will take him out in 2016 without breaking a sweat. Throwing tidbits to teachers neither helps him much, nor hurts him. But the Legislature is a different story.
The school funding issue has certainly brought angry parents and teachers to meetings and town halls. But will that really bring Dem voters to the polls in 2014? I’d like to think so, but color me skeptical.
What do you call a philosophy that abhors truth, enlightenment and education?
Satanism? Demonic? Evil?
I call it Conservatism.
I think that they have so damaged their brand that they may have trouble winning statewide in the long run. It will also help in the few competitive races this year. Democratic gains will be incremental, not one fell swoop.
Cutting the UNC System—-again—-and further cutting the one agency (DHHS) that clearly needs staffing and program improvements so as to source a small raise to K-12 public school teacher salaries is the best this governor can come up with? Really?
Once again, McCrory adds to his growing reputation as a small thinker.
Yes, I know, at least he’s out there supporting a pay increase. But it’s apparent that he and most GOP legislators would rather not be doing so, if growing public clamor and their disapproval ratings weren’t forcing their hand (I think Senator Curtis speaks for the majority of them).
But getting the salary-increase resources from programs that have already been cut harshly in recent years is not the way to make truly significant progress on K-12 education in NC, nor to improve government-supported programs overall. And to steal from higher education to fill a need in K-12 education just reflects how shallow the governor’s and GOP thinking on education is as a whole.
NC’s constitution and governmental structure places it in the “weak governorship” category among the 50 states. Nonetheless, we have had very effective and visionary governors in our history (Hunt, Martin, Holshauser, Sanford). McCrory continues to craft a record that will keep him in the historic shadow of these chief executives, and (hopefully) make him a one-term governor..
I completely agree, Mick. The GOP tax cuts for the rich blew a big hole in the state budget, and cuts to teacher pay caused public outrage. So rather than increasing revenue, thei GOP options are limited to squeezing it out of some other part of the budget. Putting the squeeze on the UNC system is may not be politically safe either. But the GOP base is probably good with gutting DHHS, that’s just money wasted on the poor anyway, in their current political consensus.
Your comparison of McCrony with past leadership is cringeworthy. McCrony has wrecked everything he’s touched, so we probably won’t have him to kick around for long.
With his proposed $49 million cut to the UNC System, the Governor further highlights his disdain for education.