Why education matters in the North Carolina senate race

by | Sep 22, 2014 | 2014 Elections, Editor's Blog, Education, US Senate | 7 comments

Thom Tillis is up with another ad defending his record on education. National pundits are asking why education has so dominated the North Carolina Senate contest. It’s a subject usually confined to state politics, while federal races are more often about issues like social security and Medicare or debt and taxes.

In North Carolina, education is a core value.Public schools and universities play an outsized role in our historical narrative. Every school kid learns that we opened the first state university about the same time we established ourselves as a state. We believe that public education has the power to make our society better and improve the lives of our citizens. That belief has been the one point of agreement that crosses ideological lines and has endured throughout most of our history.

More than 80 years ago, Gov. O. Max Gardner shaped our current commitment to public schools. Gardner was no raging liberal. He was an anti-union textile mill owner and leader of the business wing of the Democratic Party when North Carolina was a one-party state. He was also leader of a political dynasty that controlled much of state government for almost a quarter of a century.

Gardner took office on the eve of the Great Depression. When towns and counties began defaulting on their debts, Gardner moved the funding responsibility for roads and schools to the state to ease their financial burdens. He overhauled the tax system to move away from a heavy reliance on local property taxes toward a broader sales tax and corporate income tax to fund the “general and uniform free system of public schools” that the state constitution guarantees.

Gardner built a broad-based coalition that has proven remarkably durable. He brought together the conservative business community and the New Dealers who built the modern Democratic Party. They agreed that the financial responsibility for providing free public schools would be a shared burden because of the shared benefit. For business owners, it meant an educated workforce. For the New Dealers, it redistributed money to alleviate poverty and build a middle class.

Thirty years later, conservatives and progressives came together to make our higher-education system the centerpiece of economic development. They built a community college system that’s still one of the best in the nation and Republican Gov. Jim Holshouser oversaw consolidation of our 16-campus university system. While other Southern states lured companies through low taxes and lower wages, we attracted them through top-tier research and development facilities and a highly trained workforce.

In the 1990s, we focused on early-childhood education and public elementary and secondary schools. Democratic Gov. Jim Hunt appointed Republican business leader Phil Kirk to chair the State Board of Education. Together, they set North Carolina on a path to bring teacher pay to the national average, reduced class size and added accountability to classrooms that raised test scores and improved graduation rates.

Our commitment to public education became part of our shared cultural identity as North Carolinians. Our schools, colleges and universities attracted businesses and talented people to the state. The country took notice and we got used to being named to “Best of” lists–best place to do business, best public university system, best place to live, etc. We valued education and were willing to pay for it through taxes and fees.

So when the Great Recession hit and left a massive hole in the budget, people were dismayed when the Democrats who controlled the legislature cut funding to education. They had little remorse in turning them out in 2010 and again in 2012, but they were shocked at what they got in 2013 when the GOP took control of the Governor’s Mansion and had veto proof majorities in both houses of the legislature. Without Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue’s veto pen to counter the most extreme measures, the Republicans went on a tear.

They didn’t just make surgical cuts to public schools, community colleges and universities. They cut whole chunks out of their budgets and seemed to enjoy doing it. They mocked teachers, saying they only cared about their jobs and pensions, as they denied them raises. They eliminated teacher assistant positions and cut funding for textbooks. They ended teacher tenure and salary increases for advanced degrees.

They unwittingly violated an unwritten covenant that has been in place longer than most of us have been alive. They did it because they didn’t understand or didn’t care about our history and the role education has played in creating our cultural identity. They see education as little more than a means to an end–a path to employment. They don’t appreciate that our commitment to public education has shaped the national perception of our state. Businesses and people move here because of that commitment. Education is so much more to North Carolina than just a way to land a job.

But the Republicans didn’t expect the blowback. They watched the approval of the legislature plummet and they saw mass rallies across the state, fueled, among other things, by anger at the cuts to schools. So this year they tried to walk it back a bit. They gave teachers raises, restored tenure and reinstated pay raises for advanced degrees. But the damage was done.

As Tillis began his quest for the Senate, education quickly emerged as his biggest liability. Polls showed it and Hagan knew it. The cuts to education and the disrespect shown to teachers were an assault on the way we view ourselves and the values we hold. We’re not a backwards Southern state, because of our commitment to public schools. Education attracts businesses and creates opportunities.

Tillis has never understood that. His response to the attacks has been ineffective because it’s been so narrow. He’s simply arguing that he didn’t cut education funding. He needs to explain how his policies will improve our schools, colleges and universities and how those policies reflect our values and priorities. If he can’t do that, he’s out of touch with the people he wants to represent.

7 Comments

  1. Marie Pomeroy

    I still don’t understand why Bob Luddy’s name doesn’t come up more often when there are comments about the dismantling of the public schools. He is a know attendee of the Koch brothers meetings, has been a top contributor to most, if not all, of the Republicans now in our state legislature (as well as at least one sitting judge), is involved in extremist right-wing groups, is a very strident proponent of school vouchers, and is building at least 25 private schools in Wake County! Why doesn’t his name come up more often?

  2. Mick

    “His response to the attacks has been ineffective because it’s been so narrow. He’s simply arguing that he didn’t cut education funding.”

    Who is advising Tillis on his ad strategy? If I were a Republican, I’d be complaining mucho about his new ads on education. So defensive, so detailed, so….boring.

    Again, Tillis has not offered one ad, nor a single moment in the first debate, in which he’s lofted a broad, bold or innovative vision onhow and where education (or any other program) will benefit our state in the future.

    If polls start to show him overtaking Hagan, or if Tillis just plain wins on election night, I’ll acknowledge the error of my opinion, and laud Tillis’ campaign ad handlers. But until either happens, I’m saying his ads are not winning the day (and I couldn’t be happier about that).

  3. Mick

    I’m with Robbie. If the GOP restored salary increases for teachers who gain advanced degrees, that’s something I missed. Robbie’s explanation is my same understanding.

  4. Smithson

    Berger, Tillis, and McCrory never attended a University of North Carolina school. They probably deeply resent folks who are better educated than themselves.

  5. Frank McGuirt

    Tillis doesn’t know about North Carolina’s interest in and support of public education nor of our university system and its history and significance to the state. He doesn’t know our history nor understand our heritage. He’s from Florida, only been here since 1998, entered politics in 2003.

  6. Some one on Main Street

    A teacher entering the NC system today knows with certainty that he/she will receive four raises in 20 years. Four raises over two decades. Oh well! These market-driven legislators have no idea that markets drive even education. And we’ll lose the top talent to states that know the value of investing in teachers.

  7. Robbie

    I don’t think the new budget reinstated pay raises for advanced degrees did it? It actually eliminated future increases in pay for teacher’s who obtain their master’s degree unless a teacher started work on the degree before August of 2013 or unless the degree is a requirement of the job. They also recalculated the way they will pay those who already have those degrees which amounts to less of a pay increase for them and of course they eliminated longevity pay in the process.

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