GOP launches spring offensive against public education
Republicans begin blistering frontal assault on teachers while bombing school budgets.
Update: Last week, I wrote about my problems with the News & Observer website and my plan to end my subscription. A few hours after I posted the article, I got a call from McClatchy’s Head of Subscriber Care. She connected me with a technician who identified the problem and is working with programmers to fix it. She also informed me that subscribers now have access to all McClatchy sites. That’s a pretty amazing deal for someone who consumes a lot of news from around the country. I will continue my subscription.
The Republican legislature has launched its spring offensive against public schools in North Carolina. Last week, the legislature expanded their voucher scheme, taking $500 million from public schools to subsidize wealthy families who send their children to private schools. They also made a frontal assault against teachers with a bill that would require them to post lesson plans online along with their names. These measures will deprive public school students of resources while demoralizing teachers.
Republicans have been dishonest about their plans for public education for years. Before they took power, they complained that Democrats’ warnings that the GOP would cut funding to public schools was little more than scare tactics. Once they took power, though, they took a hatchet to the education budget, leaving North Carolina with one of the lowest per pupil spending rates in the country. The state also has among the lowest teacher pay rates in the nation.
When Republicans first launched their voucher scheme, they insisted the program was designed to help poor students escape failing public schools. They vehemently denied that the vouchers would become tax cuts for millionaires, yet here we are. Republicans lifted the cap on Opportunity Scholarships, making the name a misnomer. Instead, they are tax cuts for rich people that are coming out of the education budget. They lied again about the purpose of the so-called scholarships.
Ever since they’ve taken power, Republicans have seen teachers as the enemy. In their telling of public education, teachers are devious, indoctrinating students in radical ideologies and turning them against the culture. They need heavy-handed regulation from their masters in the state legislature. The proposed bill is meant to either expose the radical agenda of teachers who want to turn society into a Marxist hellscape or prevent them from implementing their agenda in the first place. It’s a signal to parents that teachers are not to be trusted.
In reality, most teachers are nonpolitical except that they want the resources to teach their students and high enough pay that they don’t need second jobs to cover their bills. They see their jobs as giving students a space to gain the tools to navigate an increasingly complicated world. They’ve become the victims of legislative bullies.
If Republicans are going to force public school teachers to post their lesson plans, then the requirement should apply to every school that accepts public funds. Private religious schools need to let us know what they are teaching our children. If anybody has a radical agenda in this country, it’s the evangelical churches who seem to be a magnet for sex abusers and preaching that anyone who doesn’t agree with them is going to hell. Those folks are running schools that are taking taxpayer dollars.
The 2024 legislative session marks the thirteenth year of the GOP offensive against public schools. They have demeaned the teaching profession and cut funding for schools while claiming that our schools are broken. They are now paying families to abandoned the public schools for private ones with no accountability.
If public schools are broken, then Republicans broke them. They’ve had thirteen years to fix the problems they claimed the schools had and their solution is to empty them of the most privileged students, leaving them for kids of underprivileged families. Republicans don’t believe that those who have benefited most from our society and government have any obligation to those who have been left behind. They are trying to turn public schools into second-rate institutions reserved for the poorest members of society by making teaching an unattractive proposition and encouraging privileged families to leave. It’s a radical notion.
Democrats need to launch a vigorous counter offensive. They need to regain the trust of parents by laying out an agenda that pushes back against the Radical Republicans and stands up for public schools. They need to educate the public about transferring tax dollars from public schools to wealthy families supporting private ones with no accountability. They need to let the public know that tax dollars are going to support religious institutions who are, in fact, indoctrinating children. The assault on our public schools cannot go unanswered.
We have a great slate for Council of State this time around. That includes MO Green, who will be a fantastic Superintendent of Education. He is campaigning hard and has such compassion and intelligence. His opponent wants to end public education.
The Legislature also needs to start funding the Leandro Bill. But of course, with Republicans in charge and a Republican Supreme Court in NC, they are doing what they can to overturn what the NC Supreme Court passed previously when they actually cared about the citizens.
I've had to take some time before framing a response to this post. If I started in on the state of affairs in education in NC at present, I would not know where to begin or when to stop. Will say, however, I'm glad Mills receives call from McClatchy's Head of Subscription Care and receives appropriate help and can remain a subscriber and claim access to all McClatchy sites. This is probably due to Mills' persistence, personal advocacy, strong personal speaking and writing skills, and maybe even perhaps his own name recognition. I do not know this last part about name recognition. Still. He's known for tenacity. Anyway. Great news. Here's my aside. I'm reminded of an experience a few months back when I struggled through hoops, loops, hours on the phone, and complete frustration with my secondary insurance--Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC. They set in motion a new operating system and launched before getting out the kinks. Such a mess. I put up with it for most of a day and stopped. Rather than pursue further I placed a call to the NC Department of Insurance consumer services and filed a written complaint. I knew the problem I was having was probably not at all unique. I figured many others were affected, especially those connected with Seniors' Health Insurance Information Program (SHIIP). This made it more imperative to get to an agency AND a person to be certain my complaint would be heard. In less than 24 hours, I receive a call from a complaint analyst from NC Department of Insurance. And within hours after that, I receive a call from customer service from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC to address the problem. Often what gets attention is using writing effectively to register a complaint. And registering the complaint with a higher-up. Forget customer call centers for tech support when departments appear scrambled. Yet in education it appears quite clear that refined critical literate skills are a threat to our NC Republican legislature or the assault on teachers and bombed out budgets for education in NC would not have happened. As Mills points out, the ongoing, precise assault against public education in our state has been in the works for years. Increment by increment. So, of course why not legislate something burdensome and repulsive like ordering teachers to post their lesson plans? Drag the system down further. Make it ever more difficult for educators to promote critical literacy across disciplines and teach students to exercise command with spoken and written language. That is too radical. What's radical is a Republican legislature or a political mindset to not want citizens to have and use power that comes from sharp thinking skills. And writing well can ignite as can a powerful weapon. I suspect those at the N.&O. and McClatchy caught wind of who was dropping their subscription and did something about it quickly. Or put another way--political winds blowing today suggest many in power do not desire educated citizenry. But would rather have fools standing at key intersections dressed in patriotic costumes waving flags and banners and shouting trump ass nonsense.