The budget passed by the state legislature last week demonstrates just how far the values of our lawmakers in the N.C. General Assembly are from those that built North Carolina.
They have exhibited complete disregard for our schools — the edifice upon which our state was built — depriving children and young adults and compromising future economic prosperity.
This budget is terrible for the future of North Carolina. As citizens deeply affected by it, we must affirm our commitment to the value of education by holding those representatives up for re-election accountable this November.
The current crowd in Raleigh first raised questions about their priorities in the 2011-2013 biennial budget, passed last June. It featured substantial cuts to the UNC system. UNC-Chapel Hill suffered a reduction of 17.9 percent, or more than $100 million.
This past year, students and faculty have experienced the consequences of that decision, weathering severe cuts in classes and personnel, as well as difficulties retaining professors and losing even more in federal grant money.
The Board of Governors was forced to raise tuition to help staunch some of the bleeding, pricing out prospective students. While legislators claimed their 2011 budget would not cost any K-12 teaching jobs, approximately 3,000 teachers and teaching assistants were cut.
This year, the N.C. General Assembly — with a Republican majority in both houses — passed a bill modifying the biennial budget, which sets our K-12 education system up for an even bleaker situation this coming year.
The budget does not allocate enough to make up for expiring federal funding, ultimately reducing overall educational spending by an additional $189 million. Between the 2009-10 fiscal year and 2012-13, the total amount of decreased school funding — what schools actually receive — comes to $520 million.
And the modified budget could cost up to 3,400 additional teaching jobs, a cut this state simply cannot afford.
