Whatever happened to North Carolina Democrats?

In 2011, when Republicans took control of state government, one of the promises they made was that they were going to “fix public education.” They’ve had control for 15 years. How’s that promise working out?

Few disagreed public education needed help. Only 34 percent of our 4^th grade students performed at or above the “proficient” level in reading. 37 percent of 8^th grade students ranked proficient or above in math. Our students ranked 39^thin SAT scores. Graduation rates rose to 80 percent, although it was understood grade inflation was a factor. We were 45^thin public education funding, 41^st in teacher compensation and 3^rd in dropouts.

COVID made everything worse. We are still trying to recover from students essentially missing a year of instruction. Parents were voting with their feet, moving their children to charter schools, private schools and home schooling.

Public education needed triage. What did our legislature do?

They essentially threw up their hands and gave up!

The Republicans’ only innovation, if you can call it that, came in 2013 when they inaugurated “Opportunity Scholarships, offering vouchers to students from low-income families.  Few were fooled with this thinly veiled offering and knew it was just a crack in the door that would redirect funding needed for public schools to private schools and provide vouchers for a wider range of students. Put bluntly, it was a disguised way to resegregate our public schools.

43 percent of students in traditional k-12 schools are white, but 75 percent of those receiving vouchers are White; about 50 percent of them come middle to upper income families.

And we don’t know how well these private school students are being taught because there are few restrictions on these schools. They must administer end of grade tests, but they don’t have to publish their outcomes.

Oh, and beginning in the September school year start, North Carolina, the only state in the nation without a budget, has appropriated $675 million tax dollars to pay kids to go to these mostly religious private schools.

Is this what you call “fixing” public education?

I have long wondered where are our brightest and best educators while all this is going on?

More specifically, where are North Carolina Democrats?

They are appalled, but their response has been more appalling. Essentially, they just defended the status quo. If we just funded education better, if we just paid teachers more, things would turn around, they told us. And too many were still fighting culture wars, which delighted Democratic activists, but irritated parents, who just wanted THEIR child to get the best possible education. No innovative solutions were heard.

Here’s the truth. When new ideas have been presented, when innovations bubble up and when true leadership emerges it has been North Carolina Democrats who came up with the plan, rolled up their sleeves, got involved, and made things happen.

Terry Sanford, was so concerned about inadequate funding for education that in 1961 he imposed a sales tax on food and prescription drugs. “Food Tax Terry” implemented the most unpopular tax in our history, but we hired 2,800 new teachers, raised their salaries by 20 percent and helped our nascent community college system. Outcomes improved significantly.

Jim Hunt’s dedication to improving public education is unquestioned. He started Smart Start, getting young children ready for school, raised teacher pay to the national average and test scores improved dramatically.

And we must give Republican Jim Martin, himself an educator, props for supporting the “career ladder” for teachers, raising teacher pay and the Basic Education Program.

Mike Easley championed “More at Four” pre-k programs and the “Learn and Earn” initiative in which high school students could get community college credits as they graduated. Bev Perdue, despite dealing with a recessionary economy, still managed to create a statewide broadband initiative to connect our public schools to the web. Our high school graduation rate exceeded 80 percent for the first time.

Democrats have a proud heritage for bold, innovative education initiatives, but I don’t see Democrats offering that today. They mostly moan about Republicans destroying our schools.

Here are a few suggestions for starters: Public education in our state is governed by so many rules and regulations it is impossible to understand them all, much less execute them. It’s time to take an axe to large numbers of them; they may have had some good intent when started, but many need scrapping and, if continued, simplifying.

We need to declare that any education entity that gets state funding for primary education must play by the same rules. To compete, there must be a level playing field.

And educators must join the 21^st century and our kids in learning and implementing intuitive instruction methods using modern devices and techniques.

If traditional public education is going to improve significantly, Democrats must make it happen. It’s time to step up and be heard.

Tom Campbell is a Hall of Fame North Carolina broadcaster and columnist who has covered North Carolina public policy issues since 1965.  Contact him at tomcamp@ncspin.com