Day: <span>August 1, 2013</span>

Another attack on public education

 

The headline in Education Week just kind of leaped off the screen. “The Most Backward Legislature in America,” a blog post by veteran educator John Wilson, is a sad recitation of what can – and does – happen when legislative ideologues are committed to blindly cutting taxes instead of responsibly meeting basic state needs, including public education.

No, it isn’t about the Texas Legislature. It is about a dramatic political sea change in North Carolina, a once-progressive state that has been plummeting, driven downward by a new set of legislators apparently intent on winning a “race to the bottom” for their state’s public schools. Read the link below for an account of a half-a-billion-dollar cut to education funding and its impact, including major teacher job losses, cuts to textbooks and elimination of scholarships for students who want to become teachers.

While hacking away at education, the same legislators cut taxes, with corporations and the wealthiest 5 percent of individuals in North Carolina receiving the lion’s share.

Elections have consequences, folks. And, so does redistricting. It may take years for North Carolina voters to undo the damage.

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/john_wilson_unleashed/2013/07/the_most_backward_legislature_in_america.html?cmp=ENL-EU-MOSTPOP