Two more reminders of the damage to public education
Published October 17, 2014
by Chris Fitzsimon, NC Policy Watch and NC SPIN panelist, October 16, 2014.
You have to give folks on the Right credit for one thing this election season. They are going all out to mislead people in North Carolina about the damage done to public education by the General Assembly in the last four years. And they are not letting the facts get in the way.
It’s a tough job, even if you are willing to distort the numbers and take policies out of context and ignore the effect of the Great Recession, etc. People can read all the op-ed columns and whitepapers the conservative propaganda outfits can produce but they don’t make much sense to parents when their son or daughter is in a bigger class this year and doesn’t have a textbook to bring home anymore and their favorite teacher has moved to another state.
The job of the spin doctors trying to deflect attention from the all the damage done to public schools was made more difficult this week by two compelling reminders of what has actually happened in the last few years.
The widely respected Center for Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington released a report about states funding of public schools and how it compares to funding before the recession began in 2008-2009.
North Carolina is one of 30 states providing less funding for education than it provided before the recession hit. The state now spends 14.5 percent less on public schools than it spent in 2008 when you adjust for inflation, the seventh biggest decrease in the country. That’s not a number you hear much from the Right these days.
Neither is the finding in the report that per pupil spending in the since 2008 is down by $855, the sixth worst in the nation in that category.
And finally, and maybe most compelling given the current rhetoric from the Right, the report finds that North Carolina is spending 4.7 percent less in per pupil spending this year than it spent last year. So much for the “increased spending in education” the defenders of the General Assembly claim.
This week also brought a startling story about another key part of the Right’s education agenda, the rapid and still too unaccountable expansion of charter schools, which in many cases have developed into profit centers for shady operators instead of the “laboratories of education innovation” that we were promised.
The report from ProPublica tells the story of Baker Mitchell, a charter school operator in southeastern North Carolina, and the four charters that contract with Roger Bacon Academy, a for-profit company that Mitchell owns, to operate the schools.
The scheme funnels millions of taxpayer dollars to Mitchell’s company and he is still balking at releasing some of the details about he spends the money, despite a law passed last year to require him to release detailed salary information. It is public money after all. The Wilmington Star-News is now suing for the records.
Meanwhile the public money keeps flowing to Mitchell who, the report found, also convinced the General Assembly to give him a tax credit for renting property he owns to the charters he controls.
Mitchell is well-connected, serving on the board of one prominent right-wing think tank in Raleigh while his wife serves on another one. Both groups have been strong proponents of the rapid and in many cases unaccountable expansion of charter schools and have both have been silent about Mitchell’s web of conflicts of interest and his refusal to release his financial information about how he spends public dollars.
Less spending on public education plus profiteering and ethical conflicts by well-connected conservatives cynically cashing in on the charter school craze: Those are the facts.
No wonder the folks on the Right are working so hard to hide them.
http://www.ncpolicywatch.com/2014/10/16/two-more-reminders-of-the-damage-to-public-education/
October 17, 2014 at 9:55 am
Norm Kelly says:
Must be getting close to the election. Libs are going all out to stir up the base. Kinda get the impression too many libs have the feeling that their base is going to sit out a lot this time around. Doesn't seem that libs are motivated. We can hope; this is real hope though, not that fake stuff peddled by the witch doctor in the White House!
Let's see how a true lib does what he can to stir up the base 'you have to give folks on the Right credit for one thing this election season. They are going all out to mislead people in North Carolina about the damage done to public education by the General Assembly in the last four years. And they are not letting the facts get in the way.' What's true about this? First, libs NEVER, EVER allow facts to get in the way. There are so many examples. Take the ebola problem for instance. Travel bans could prevent large numbers of people coming into our country who MAY have been exposed, thereby preventing an outbreak in our country. Except the libs line is that if we implement flight restrictions, aid workers and supplies won't be able to get in to help. Talk about all mixed up but permanently set.
Then there's the convenient limited time-frame in their concern - it's only the last 4 years that libs complain about cuts to the education establishment. Wonder why? Cuz prior to that it was actually libs making actual cuts to big education. So, if they don't include their time in power, they don't get any of the blame. Kinda like the blame they try to deflect for the creation of, existence of, knowledge of the on-going leaks at the coal ash ponds. They KNEW about the coal-ash ponds; they knew the coal-ash ponds were leaking. Not only since the Republicans took control of Raleigh. But, according to the ever-reliable N&D, the libs knew about the coal ash disaster FOR DECADES! Yet DENR complains NOW that the legislature is telling them to get along with the businesses they are supposed to regulate. What was the environment when the libs controlled Raleigh if they KNEW the coal ash ponds were a problem but did NOTHING ABOUT IT!?
Then there's the claim that the RIGHT will stop at nothing to MISLEAD people. Libs need to remember that when you point a finger at your opponent there are (typically) 3 fingers pointing back at yourself. No one is trying to claim that Republicans are saints. But it's interesting how libs FORGET and want you to forget that they ran Raleigh for over 90% of the past 120years or so and they want to blame EVERYTHING on the newly elected Republicans. They are truly misleading voters, legal and otherwise, when it comes to many issues. Government monopoly schools are one issue. Duke coal-ash ponds is another issue. Cutting taxes for 'the rich' while increasing taxes on 'the poor' is another. Leveling the playing field is more like what they have done. Cutting taxes for 'big business' is another. When libs are in control they offer 'incentives' to businesses that WANT to do business in NC while continuing to penalize every other business to pay for their 'incentives', as well as penalizing citizens for these incentives. What the libs don't want you to know, and hope you don't research on your own, is that leveling the playing field for EVERYONE when it comes to taxes and regulations improves the economy for everyone here as well as improves the bottom line of the state budget. Not that the state budget shouldn't be cut even more. There's plenty of fluff in the state budget that hasn't been touched yet. Increasing the cost of medicare/medicaid under socialized medicine will certainly expand the budget. There's no plan by ANY lib on how to pay for the expanded costs, but they still want to take us down that dead end!
'People can read all the op-ed columns and whitepapers the conservative propaganda outfits can produce'. Then again, people can read all the editorials produced by the N&D, and all the other lib support groups. Yes, the N&D is a lib support group. They can listen to Chris make excuses for the 'great recession' and why that was used to cut the budget for big education. How much of classrooms NOT having textbooks has to do with the move to Communist Core? When the decision to implement Communist Core upon the residents of our state, did the libs who were in charge allocate extra dollars to purchase new textbooks that took Communist Core curriculum into account? And make no mistake, Communist Core is NOT a set of standards, it IS A CURRICULUM! Every time you hear some lib claim that Communist Core is ONLY a set of standards, remember to view that lib with a growing nose, as in Pinocchio!
'The state now spends 14.5 percent less on public schools than it spent in 2008 when you adjust for inflation'. So, the Republican legislature has ACTUALLY increased the budget for the education establishment. Does spending 14.5% less at this point reflect the drastic cuts that were put into place by the demon party when they were in charge and simply blame the great recession? And if we adjust for inflation, how much of the inflation rate is due to the poor demon economy and the flat economic growth nationwide under the control of the demon party?
Percentages and numbers can be manipulated to reflect whatever anyone wants them to reflect. Has ACTUAL spending on big education gone up or down in the past few years? UP! Even Chris will admit this, if he's willing to tell the truth and stop scheming for his lib allies. We are spending MORE now on big education than in past years. The PERCENTAGE may be less PER PUPIL when you take into account increased enrollment. When the libs controlled Raleigh, did their education establishment spending keep up with BOTH inflation AND population growth? Or did the libs ACTUALLY cut the budget for government monopoly schools? And when Chris claims that spending is down 4.7% since the Republicans took over, does that include colleges/universities OR only k-12? And does it include spending for goofy things like More at Four and the other programs targeting pre-K students?
Chris quotes a report from Pro-Publica. There's no reference to the political stance of ProPub. Which, by default, since referenced by a lib means this is an ally of the socialist party of the US also. No reference, lib organization. Reference to a 'right wing' or other derogatory label when it's NOT an ally of the libs. So how much should we trust the report from ProPub? Libs use derogatory labels to describe groups NOT aligned with socialist positions to imply that the information can NOT be trusted. Therefore, we can conclude that when an organization is not referenced with a label it is a lib organization and therefore ONLY libs can trust the source. Fact lovers, conservatives, educated voters should know right up front that when no label appears by the organization name, the source probably should not be trusted. The results are probably skewed to support the lib agenda.
Thanks Chris. Refer to the charter school plan as a 'scheme'. If it were a Socialist Party of the US 'plan', it would be referred to as a 'plan' or 'solution'. But because charter schools are hated by libs, it's a 'scheme'. Just like EVERY other idea put forth by conservatives, libs will ALWAYS refer to it as a 'scheme'. How can the average person tell when a lib hates any private sector idea and stands ONLY for government intervention? Simple, libs will use the word 'scheme' to describe the plan. When libs come up with a true scheme, it usually involves government getting MORE involved in your life and your families life!
October 17, 2014 at 10:57 am
Mike Yorke says:
No fan of Republican legislature the last 4 years. That said - nothing they have done / not done - could damage the quality of public education in NC more than the enormous NC educational bureaucracy the Democratic legislatures have fostered and funded for decades.
