Fitzsimon File

Education is always at the top of politicians’ priority lists and this year is no different. House Democrats listed it first on their agenda at the beginning of this summer’s legislative session and first on their list of accomplishments as the session ended.  

When Governor Mike Easley presented his budget to the General Assembly in May, the news release from his office came with the headline, “Gov. Easley announces budget plan to improve education.”

During the explanation of the budget on the House and Senate floors, most of the time was devoted to describing all that the budget did for public schools.

All that happens every year because elected officials know the public wants the state to invest in education. This year, with a few notable exceptions, the substance of the session matched the claims about it.

That was clear not only from the Democrats’ pronouncements, but the silence of legislative Republicans on the issue, many of whom voted for the final budget agreement.

Republican Phil Berger, the Senate Minority Leader, didn’t mention education in his press release that criticized Democrats for their performance this session on a wide variety of issues. That might be because he couldn’t find a whole lot to complain about.

The final budget increased public education spending almost 10 percent and most of it went to the classroom. Teachers received an average salary increase of 8 percent. Principals and assistant principals will get a raise of 7 percent. Other education personnel will receive the 5.5 percent raise to given to most state employees.

Above and beyond the salary increases, the budget spends more than $113 million on new education funding. That includes $27 million for the Disadvantaged School Supplemental Fund set up to respond to the Leandro lawsuit, $41.8 million to fully fund the low wealth school formula, and $44 million to restore an annual across the board budget cut.

Lawmakers also allocated more money to Governor Mike Easley’s Learn and Earn program and class size reduction in early grades. 

All that investment ought to help two of the state’s most pressing problems in education, the abysmal high school graduation rate, and the sputtering response to the ruling that all children have a constitutional right to a sound, basic education.  Superior Court Judge Howard Manning has threatened to close schools that don’t meet that standard, as measured by test scores.

State lawmakers also funded organizations outside the schools that help struggling students too, like Communities in Schools that works with community leaders and individual kids to reduce the dropout rate.

Not all education issues received the attention they deserved. Lawmakers did little to address the school construction crisis that threatens the quality of education in many counties. Lottery proceeds will help some, but they would help a lot more if they were all dedicated to build schools instead of funding ongoing programs with revenue that is unpredictable.

Lawmakers could have also eliminated more of the county share of Medicaid costs to free up money for school construction. The final budget only caps counties overall Medicaid spending, leaving counties to keep paying the $500 million share of the program that is beyond their control.

The budget also inexplicably reduced education funding by ending the practice of giving schools back the sales taxes they pay when buying products and materials. That budget shell game will cost schools $33 million. 

Finally on the troubling side of the ledger is the continuing reluctance of state leaders to admit that poverty and lack of health care play major roles in how children perform in school.

When a national report documented that the percentage of children living in poverty had risen, a spokesperson for Governor Easley said that the state was addressing the poverty rate by investing in education.

Investing in human services, health care for the uninsured, and affordable housing would help reduce poverty and help poor kids do better in school. This General Assembly made some progress in those areas, but a modest one-year investment after years of neglect is not enough.

The same is true of public education. This year’s budget won’t solve all the problems in public schools, but lawmakers deserve credit for investing in education and largely living up to the claims in their press releases. This was an education session.

 

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This entry was posted on Monday, July 31st, 2006 at 3:19 pm and is filed under Fitzsimon File. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.