The Differences Between Republicans and Democrats

Know what, Carter? I'd be all for more spending for our education system if that spending was "dedicated". Problem we have and have had for a very long time is that when additional dollars are assigned to our public education system in NC, it almost always is diluted because it is used in a big way to further compensate educators and education administrators. Little actually gets to the classrooms. I'd vote in favor of increased spending for pur public education syatem if there was a clause or edict of some sort that says that ALL of the increase goes for supplies and books and upgrades to audio/visual mechanisms and state-of-the-art teaching tools for the teachers to use with explicit language that says that the educators don't receive ANY of the funds for increased compensation/pension.

I'm betting a vast majority of our citizens in our fair state would go along with that.

The people of North Carolina value and respect good teachers and administrators, but they are unwilling (and rightly so) to spend any more money on K-12 public education until they are given some reason to believe that it will result in actual improvement in our public schools. That is the point that Democrats consistently miss. No one is anti-teacher, or anti-public education, but most people are fed up with paying more and more and more and getting the same result or worse, year after year. Look how spending on K-12 public education rose under the Democrats, and compare that with student achievement as measured by DPI's own testing program (designed and run entirely by Democrats).

I wouldn't support ANY increase in public education spending that did not come with some serious reforms in the way our education system works. And I'm not alone in that thinking.