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Legislature preparing to shortchange public education yet again
Be sure to check out this morning’s Capitol Broadcasting Company editorial on WRAL.com. In it, the authors take aim at the new state budget proposal that state lawmakers plan to unveil today for the way it will, once again, shortchange the most important function of state government: public education.
Here are some excerpts:
A House appropriations subcommittee unveils details today of a skimpy education budget. It offers up less than a 1-percent boost next year for North Carolina’s public schools, community colleges and universities.
This is a phantom hike in the current $13.84 billion education budget, significantly less than the $14.56 billion Gov. Roy Cooper presented in his modest – and largely ignored – spending proposal last month.
The constitutional requirement for access to quality education – a “right” in our state – is not being met and it is the General Assembly’s failure. Per-student spending ranks among the lowest in the South and the nation. Teacher pay, when adjusted for inflation, is less today than it was in 2009.
While the legislature scrimps its constitutional duties, it finds plenty of money to spend on unnecessary tax breaks for corporations. The latest is a proposed $140 million annual cut in the franchise tax. That’s on top of $2.5 billion in corporate tax cutting that has already been enacted over the last five years. All that comes at a cost of meeting the VERY BASIC needs of North Carolinians.
This is a phantom hike in the current $13.84 billion education budget, significantly less than the $14.56 billion Gov. Roy Cooper presented in his modest – and largely ignored – spending proposal last month.
The constitutional requirement for access to quality education – a “right” in our state – is not being met and it is the General Assembly’s failure. Per-student spending ranks among the lowest in the South and the nation. Teacher pay, when adjusted for inflation, is less today than it was in 2009.
While the legislature scrimps its constitutional duties, it finds plenty of money to spend on unnecessary tax breaks for corporations. The latest is a proposed $140 million annual cut in the franchise tax. That’s on top of $2.5 billion in corporate tax cutting that has already been enacted over the last five years. All that comes at a cost of meeting the VERY BASIC needs of North Carolinians.
Meanwhile, the editorial notes, legislative leaders demean our teachers by attacking them as “far left” for having the temerity to come to Raleigh next Wednesday in protest of the state’s destructive policy regime.
Read more: http://pulse.ncpolicywatch.org/2019/04/26/editorial-legislature-preparing-to-shortchange-public-education-yet-again/
