Forest says most of money for Masters' degrees didn't benefit classrooms

by Jackie Starkey, Carteret County News-Times, January 20, 2016.

Ahead of this fall’s election, Lt. Gov. Dan Forest swung through the county briefly Tuesday to let voters know he feels the state’s Republican-led legislature has the momentum to push North Carolina to the top.

“We went from having the fifth highest unemployment in the United States to being the fifth fastest-growing economy in the United States, and there’s a lot of work left to do,” he told a crowd of roughly 40 voters.

The state’s second in command spoke to voters at a town hall forum at the Leon Mann Jr. Enrichment Center on the work he’s been doing presiding over the state Senate.

His stump speech Tuesday highlighted what he hailed as educational and economic policy triumphs since Republicans took the majority in the statehouse.

“We’ve basically had three years of control of the legislature (and) the executive branch to make some pretty sweeping changes in our state, unlike any other state in the country has been able to do,” he said. “So we’re just getting started.”

Mr. Forest said the public narrative on the General Assembly’s education funding is dominated by “fallacies,” and touted an average 7 percent pay raise for teachers and a growing education budget.

“We spend more money now on K-12 education than we’ve ever spent in the history of North Carolina,” he told voters.

In 2014 the General Assembly approved a teacher raise dictated by time served, inversely rewarding new teachers with significant raises, while veteran educators moving into their 30th year of teaching received 0.3 percent.

“There’s only so much money,” Mr. Forest said.

The legislature also cut bonuses for teachers with more substantive degrees, like a master’s, a cut he defended Tuesday.

“A lot of the master’s degrees that we saw in the state were for administration,” he said. “… It could come back in conversation I think, if there was data that showed that that really did have (in classroom) value.”

Additionally, education expenses will rise as the state’s population continues its upward trajectory, toping the 10 million mark and making North Carolina the ninth largest state.

When questioned about shrinking textbook and material funding, Mr. Forest said the fault does not lay with legislators, but in how local school districts used those given dollars.

“People in Raleigh are getting beat up (by people) saying there’s no money for textbooks, when that wasn’t the case at all. The case was the districts were just using their money how they saw fit,” he said.

The lieutenant governor also brought one of his long-term initiatives – technology for all students – before students from West Carteret High School’s Youth and Government Club.

“I think it’s time we demand (tech) for our schools,” he said. “We are preparing our young people for the jobs that we’re out there trying to do using technology, without the technology in their hands to do it. I think that’s kind of shameful in this day and age.”

A partner of an architectural firm before running for office in 2012, Mr. Forest said he also hopes to oversee the state Senate through additional tax reform and more work to clip spending on Medicaid, the health program for low-income families.

“We cut income tax. We cut personal income tax of every tax paying citizen (so they) had more money in their pocket after that,” he said.

But the cuts were small for low- and middle-income earners this year, at around $50 for households under $30,000, according to budget projections.

This year legislators also expanded the state’s sales and use tax to create more money to send to impoverished and rural parts of the state by taxing repairs and installations.

The legislature has cut corporate taxes under GOP rule as a means to grow a healthy climate that attracts business, according to Mr. Forest, meaning high-earning businesses are paying less, in some cases while taking advantage of other incentive programs.

He also answered to voters on a few other headline items, including the state’s current position on offshore drilling – “it’s 100 times safer than it was” – and immigration – “I think there’s a hunger in our nation for Congress to do something about it.”

This spring, Mr. Forest has no Republican primary, but will see a race this fall from one of the four Democratic candidates competing in the primary.

“I just have the greatest admiration for this man,” Sen. Norman Sanderson, R-Pamlico, who also represents Carteret and Craven counties, said Tuesday. “He has taken the role of a lieutenant governor in the state of North Carolina to a very high level.”

Contact Jackie Starkey at 252-726-7081, ext. 232; email jackie@thenewstimes.com; or follow on Twitter

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