Republicans work to persuade NC voters on schools
Published February 17, 2014
by Gary Robertson, Associated Press, published in News and Observer, February 17, 2014.
With the usual ebbs and flows, North Carolina government leaders have made public education their pre-eminent issue for more than a century.
Democrats in charge nearly all of that time wore the pro-education mantle, led by political giants such as Govs. Terry Sanford and the four-term Jim Hunt. Elected officials and the public saw schools as the way to pull the state out of post-Civil War poverty.
Now Republicans leading the General Assembly and living in the Executive Mansion simultaneously for the first time in more than 140 years have shaken up the education establishment and offered their own formula for success. They say Democrats lost direction and threw money at problems rather than embracing innovation and competition.
"Republicans in the past have been able to talk about education, but now they're able to do something about it," said Phil Kirk, a former State Board of Education chairman and aide to previous Republican governors.
But the transition has been rough on Republicans as they've faced lawsuits over their laws for taxpayer-funded private-school scholarships and the end of job-protecting teacher tenure rules. There have been angry rallies and criticisms from Democrats and their allies. Meanwhile, no pay raise for teachers this year sent the average salary further toward the bottom of the states.
"It's very hard for a person in education to look at the laws that have been passed and felt the pain they've caused and not think that they're not trying to destroy public education," said Kristin Beller, a teacher at Millbrook Elementary School in Raleigh who supports raising teacher pay to the national average in four years.
McCrory and legislative leaders have scoffed at criticisms and highlighted their strategies for student reading proficiency, school performance standards and vocational education. But they've come under tremendous pressure to address teacher morale.
So last week McCrory, Lt. Gov. Dan Forest and legislative leaders held a news conference three months before the legislative session to announce plans to raise salaries for the least experienced teachers to $35,000 by the fall of 2015. Base starting pay is now $30,800.
"Now it's time we start showing respect for our teachers right here in North Carolina, and start letting them know that they're a top priority," McCrory said last week at his alma mater of Ragsdale High School in Jamestown. He added: "This is not a partisan issue. This is not a political issue. It's the right issue."
The debate over which party best champions public education has heated up in recent years as North Carolina has truly become a two-party state. It should intensify again as all 170 General Assembly seats are up for election in November.
Democrats and their governors like Hunt and Mike Easley raised teacher salaries dramatically in the 1990s and 2000s while aiming to reach the national average.
Pay raises dried up during the Great Recession as Democratic Gov. Beverly Perdue and the Democratic-led legislature dealt with multibillion-dollar shortfalls. Both Democrats and Republicans, who took over the General Assembly after 2010, made spending reductions that led to dwindling personnel. The GOP-led legislature passed a small raise in 2012, but McCrory blamed a Medicaid shortfall for stopping a 2013 raise. Some teachers will get raises if they give up tenure rights next year.
McCrory and other Republicans said repeatedly last week's pay announcement was a "first step." Additional pay raises were ahead if the revenue picture improves, McCrory said, and so are efforts at creating a positive environment for career teachers.
Skepticism about the plans was palatable at last week's Emerging Issues Forum, an annual meeting developed by Hunt through N.C. State University that focused this year on teaching. The more than 1,000 attendees gave McCrory a tepid response when he spoke there about his plan.
The next day, a national speaker received a standing ovation at the forum while criticizing Republican education policies, while Democratic legislators got more applause than Republican counterparts during a round-table discussion. While Rep. Rick Glazier, D-Cumberland, acknowledged both parties have failed to address teacher pay recently, he wondered aloud if the GOP plan would be a "trust me, we'll get to the rest later proposal" to raise all teacher salaries.
Mac McCorkle, a Duke University professor and former adviser to Easley and Perdue, said Democrats need to offer more to voters than being pro-education, such as plans for generating economic growth. As for Republicans, McCorkle warned passing laws perceived as harming public schools won't play well with the electorate.
"What we're seeing is that they've branded themselves as the anti-education party, and that's like touching the third rail."
Today, Republicans don't seem united on exactly the next steps toward teacher pay. Senate Republicans have focused more on linking teacher pay increases to classroom performance. Rep. Brian Holloway, R-Stokes, a chief budget-writer and trained teacher, sounds more interested in providing across-the-board salary increases.
"We as Republicans have got to try to make educators understand that we do care about them," Holloway said.
February 17, 2014 at 11:20 am
Norm Kelly says:
'Democrats in charge nearly all of that time wore the pro-education mantle'. Better written as 'tried to wear the pro-education mantle'. But what's truth in editorials worth?
Let's remember, no matter how libs spin it, it's the DemoncRATs who cut education spending in recent years. It's Demons who implemented the lottery, claiming that funds from gambling would be ADDED to the education budget, not supplanting money already in the education budget. Is this what happened? Did education spending go up by an amount equal to the amount collected from state-sponsored gambling?
Smart Start hasn't proven it's worth, unless you are a die-hard lib with your head in the sand. How did the DemocRAT Education governor respond? He implemented More at Four. Another program, on top of Smart Start, to reach out to kids BEFORE they entered school. Using teachers for More at Four. Taking teachers away from schools. When the state was competing with our neighbors to attract enough teachers to fill the classrooms, the Education Governor implemented a new program to reach kids NOT in school using teachers taken away from the classroom. How smart was this effort? How did it move the education ball forward?
How did Gov Bev prove that she was taking up the mantle of Education Governor for the Demon party? She left the Superintendent in place. And hired another guy to actually do the job of the Superintendent. Duplicating the effort. Putting MORE overhead in place in the education system. Not making it better. Not making it more efficient. Just adding another state employee to take responsibility AWAY from the existing state employee. While leaving the existing state employee in place. Gov Bev created a NEW position for the education establishment. How did this move the ball forward for education in our great state?
Accuracy in journalism requires that this editorial writer have his pen broken.
'They say Democrats lost direction and threw money at problems rather than embracing innovation and competition'. Wow! Truth in this editorial? Can't be. But, if you read it the way it was written, the author is not saying this was the truth, the author is implying that the Republicans are completely, 100%, off-base when it comes to this complaint about the Democrat Party. Except Republicans were exactly ON POINT with this statement. The ONLY thing Demons even think about doing to 'improve' education, to support the education establishment, is to throw money at it. Isn't that what Gov Mike claimed about the lottery? Of course it was exactly what Mike claimed. The lottery would solve ALL education funding problems. Go back and listen to his boring speeches when he was trying to force gambling down our throats. If you can get through them you will find that Mike promised the world for education, if we only let him implement state-sponsored gambling. What else has big education, Democrat politicians proposed for improving the education establishment? Someone. Anyone. Someone has to have an idea of what the Demons planned. If the Demons embraced innovation, certainly some good lib out there knows of this plan and can get it printed by the N&D.
I won't hold my breath.
'Democrats ... like Hunt and Mike Easley raised teacher salaries dramatically in the 1990s and 2000s'. And what do we have to show for it? Did test scores rise accordingly? Did high school graduation rates rise accordingly? So, what you claim as the Demons idea, their good idea, is verification that Republican claims about Democrats is true. The Demon plan actually is to throw money at the problem. Your words, Demon action. Have you contradicted yourself? You try to write your editorial in such a way as to paint it bad for Republicans currently in control of Raleigh. What you end up doing is proving Repubclians point - the answer for DemocRATs is to throw money at the problem.
'Pay raises dried up ... as Democratic Gov. Beverly Perdue and the Democratic-led legislature'. So, you admit it was under Demon control of Raleigh that teacher pay suffered. Republicans are now in the position of not only paying teachers more but making up for the ACTUAL CUTS implemented by DemocRATs. And you have the nerve to complain that in his first year in office Pat didn't make up all the deficit?! How much money do you think the state has that it is in the position to pay teachers more, at the same time as making up for what the DemocRATS cut? My back pocket is NOT a bottomless pit of money for Raleigh to be stealing!
Part of the reason DemocRATs get standing ovations when they speak to teacher groups is because people like this editorial writer do such a good job hiding the truth from teachers and other people in the general public. It was the DEMONS WHO CUT TEACHER PAY and positions. It was THE REPUBLICANS who increased the education establishment budget THIS YEAR! These are FACTS, which escape libs and therefore garner applause from teachers.
McCorkle is right - Demons must explain their plans for generating economic growth. So far, what have they come up with? Increase the budget for the education establishment. Prevent more charter schools. Demonize private schools. Demonize home-schoolers. Raise taxes. Pay certain businesses to move to NC. Continue to throw money at the ABC store fiasco rather than resolving the issue by selling off the stores. Raising taxes. Borrowing money from the feds that we can't pay back. What have I missed? Oh, yeah, repealing the voter ID requirements so illegals can vote again and so voter fraud isn't prevented. What else? Spending more money for sure. What else? Come on, libs, show the rest of us what your great plans are. Since you can't I won't hold my breath. The Republican establishment is right: the only solution Demons have is to throw more money at it, raise taxes. Anything I missed?
'they've branded themselves as the anti-education party'. No, what the libs have done is brand Republicans as the anti-education party. The Republicans are trying to brand themselves as the innovation party. The Republicans are showing that simply throwing money at education has NOT resolved the issues. So the Republicans are trying different things; things the Demons can't even imagine trying. Demons HAVE NOT shown the willingness to try anything new or innovate in education.
For Demons, the status quo is sufficient. Except when it comes to money; then status quo is insufficient. Libs have branded Republicans as anti-education, anti-black. The used-to-be-major media outlets have carried this story for the libs. Republicans have a huge hill to climb in order to overcome this bad press. But hopefully the innovation will be able to prove the Demons wrong. The Demon plan of never trying anything new, no innovation, simply doesn't work for the future of NC.
What do 'across the board' salary increases accomplish? Does it incentivise anyone to excel? Where else in the free market, outside of government, do across the board salary adjustments work? Give me examples. Don't bother using ANY example from a unionized shop. They are not free market, non-government entities. They believe in rewarding people equally, preventing high performers from acheiving more than the 'average' person. Use a real free market example of where excellence isn't rewarded yet the excellence continues. There are ways to show educators that we care about them. Some DO involve pay. But some involves rewarding excellence. Giving teachers the opportunity to prove they are worth more than the person in the next room. Private company employees do it all the time. I did it when I worked for a private company. I refused to accept the standard raise when I
knew I was performing significantly above my peers. I was accused of not having 'friends' at the company. Of course, my response was that friendship had NOTHING to do with performance and pay, it had to do with activities outside work, like the softball team. When I performed at a higher level, produced more for the company, I expected to be rewarded for it. Why are teachers so much different than the average bear? Do teachers expect when they get in the classroom that they will be treated EXACTLY the same as any other teacher, including the ones who do just enough to get by? Isn't this socialism at its core? Doesn't socialism stifle the human spirit? (that's a trick question for you
libs!)
February 17, 2014 at 2:29 pm
Richard Bunce says:
No mention at all of the majority of government school students who are not proficient at basic skills. To the government education industrial complex and their friends in the media the government school students are just a number in a funding formula.
February 17, 2014 at 8:55 pm
Bill Worley says:
So tired of Richards broken record comments that appear on any posting about education. I'd be really curious to know how Mr. Dunce has any particular knowledge about just what kids know and don't know. Let me use my students knowledge base for reference. So Richard, tell me, are you able to do any of these things?
Examine a bi variate data set to determine the nature of the relationship, determine a mathematical model appropriate for that relationship, determine the effectiveness of that model, and then use the model for prediction, knowing when it is appropriate and when it is not?
Can you determine the appropriate modeling tools to use with a Univariate data sample; measures of center and variability, suitable graphical options, and tools to standardize data in order to draw valid conclusions across a population?
Can you represent goal measurements and tolerances to those measurements with a mathematical model, enabling us to adjust parameters without constructing a new model?
Can you use properties of parabaloids to construct useful real world items like transmission/receptor dishes, reflective lenses, and solar powered cookers?
And Richard? That's just Algebra 2 level stuff, which is sophomore year for most kids.
Maybe it's time you stop acting like you know what you're talking about.
February 17, 2014 at 11:45 pm
Richard Bunce says:
A BSEE from an excellent Engineering University and 20 years of engineering assignments on the most sophisticated Avionics systems in the world aside... the point is not what I know but what the government school students have been taught or not and the widely publicized assessment results over the last several decades strongly show the majority are not proficient at basic skills and is validated by remarks of employers and post secondary school system personnel. So keep talking about how funneling more money into government school systems, already nearly $1T a year Federal, State, and Local is going to improve the lives of the government education bureaucrats, administrators, and teachers and ignore the plight of the government school students particularly those of relatively low wealth parents who cannot escape their failed government school systems.
