League of Women Voters of North Carolina
The League of Women Voters of North Carolina’s Public Education Team urges you to add your name to the North Carolina Community Resolves for Fully Funding Public Education. This is a way to advocate for strong public schools with NC legislators and local elected officials.
We honor the bold actions of NC communities that wrote Resolves directed at the unfair practices of the English parliament 250 years ago. Our current Resolves demand that NC Legislators provide sufficient and reliable funding so that all students in all counties have equal access to certified teachers, suitable classroom resources, and up-to-date facilities. Public education is the investment in a child’s successful future and in the economic growth and well-being of our state.
Our public schools serve 84% of the K-12 students in our state, welcoming 1.5 million students of all abilities, backgrounds, and zip codes. Instead of a strong investment, the schools face chronic underfunding – going back decades. North Carolina has the regrettable distinction of lagging behind most states in financial support:
- 49th in the nation for school funding based on the state’s wealth;
- 48th for per pupil spending based on state and local contributions; and
- 43rd in average teacher salaries.
Critical to student success is a highly qualified teacher in every classroom. Yet, there are serious issues due to the stresses on teachers:
- Experienced teachers are being lost due to low salaries. Examples abound…A teacher of 27 years left to work in South Carolina where she will be compensated for her doctorate and will teach in smaller classes. A teacher with eight years of experience could not cover living expenses with two children and so made the difficult decision to leave the profession she loved.
- With the loss of federal funds, there will be fewer teacher allotments. The student to teacher ratio will increase next year and teachers are being displaced.
- Teachers address the additional student needs which impact their learning – without adequate support from social workers, nurses, and psychologists. Support staff are spread thin, often assigned to two to three schools. School counselors work with 300-500 students.
- There is a lack of teachers in critical subject areas. Students have faced high school math classes without an experienced teacher.
- Teachers use out-of-pocket resources to buy the needed supplies to create a learning classroom environment for all their students.
Our legislators need to know that North Carolinians across the state demand strong public schools.
Legislators must do the hard work of ensuring that there is enough revenue to cover the constitutional requirement for public education. In these times, it means maintaining the current tax rates for corporations and individual income instead of lowering them, stopping the diversion of public dollars to private school vouchers, and addressing the loss of federal support for students with special needs.
We envision a North Carolina where every child in every community in every corner of our great state has what they need to learn. By prioritizing public education funding, we can ensure a stronger next generation of leaders, strengthen the future of the workforce, drive a robust economy, and create thriving communities. The North Carolina General Assembly can make this happen, starting with this biennial budget.
More than 500 residents across the state have already signed the Resolves showing their commitment to NC children and citizens thriving. Please join us in supporting public schools by signing the NC Community Resolves for Fully Funded Public Education.
For more information, you can email League of Women Voters of North Carolina at: [email protected].
The views and opinions expressed in guest blog posts are those of the guest bloggers and do not necessarily represent the views of Public Schools First NC, its affiliates, or staff.
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