Why is School Out?
Republican legislators keep undermining public schools. Education goes all but unmentioned in Governor McCrory’s agenda. But Democrats seem to have retreated from the battlefield.
In the 2014 campaign, education was the top issue for North Carolina Democrats – in races for county commissioner, the legislature and even U.S. Senate. National issues and President Obama’s problems eventually – and narrowly – proved overwhelming, but Kay Hagan still nearly won and Democrats still did better in legislative races here than in almost any other state.
Since then, Democrats seemingly have said little about what’s ahead for North Carolina public schools. The focus has been on income equality, middle-class taxes and same-sex marriage.
Yes, those are big issues. And I’m not privy to internal polls. But I’m puzzled by the lack of focus on an issue that has been a winner for Democrats politically for more than 50 years and a walkoff-grand-slam winner for North Carolina over that same half-century.
A never-relenting focus on and ever-rising investments in education – early-childhood, public school, community colleges and universities – transformed North Carolina from a poor, rural state of farms and factories to a booming, bustling center of high-production agriculture, high-end manufacturing and information-era jobs.
Now we’re five years into a forced march away from that path. Some Republicans in the legislature are actively hostile to public schools. It’s telling that Craig Jarvis’ review in the N&O of McCrory’s agenda at midterm – his $2.8 billion bond referendum to upgrade state roads and facilities and debates over economic incentives, Medicaid and RFRA – didn’t once mention the word “education.”
Then you read a warning from Michael Walden, Reynolds Distinguished Professor at N.C. State University, that “over the next 40 years, the number of jobs in the state could actually fall by 1.2 million rather than rise.”
The losses, according to a study he analyzes, would come in jobs like retail salespersons, cashiers, fast-food workers, office clerks, customer service representatives, janitors and cleaners, and auto service technicians.
And losses are least likely in “occupations requiring a high level of complex decision-making, like physicians, nurses, teachers and computer software developers.”
Can you say: education?
And Democrats aren’t telling the public-schools’ success story, raising hell and pushing back?
What am I missing?
Why is School Out?
Republican legislators keep undermining public schools. Education goes all but unmentioned in Governor McCrory’s agenda. But Democrats seem to have retreated from the battlefield.
In the 2014 campaign, education was the top issue for North Carolina Democrats – in races for county commissioner, the legislature and even U.S. Senate. National issues and President Obama’s problems eventually – and narrowly – proved overwhelming, but Kay Hagan still nearly won and Democrats still did better in legislative races here than in almost any other state.
Since then, Democrats seemingly have said little about what’s ahead for North Carolina public schools. The focus has been on income equality, middle-class taxes and same-sex marriage.
Yes, those are big issues. And I’m not privy to internal polls. But I’m puzzled by the lack of focus on an issue that has been a winner for Democrats politically for more than 50 years and a walkoff-grand-slam winner for North Carolina over that same half-century.
A never-relenting focus on and ever-rising investments in education – early-childhood, public school, community colleges and universities – transformed North Carolina from a poor, rural state of farms and factories to a booming, bustling center of high-production agriculture, high-end manufacturing and information-era jobs.
Now we’re five years into a forced march away from that path. Some Republicans in the legislature are actively hostile to public schools. It’s telling that Craig Jarvis’ review in the N&O of McCrory’s agenda at midterm – his $2.8 billion bond referendum to upgrade state roads and facilities and debates over economic incentives, Medicaid and RFRA – didn’t once mention the word “education.”
Then you read a warning from Michael Walden, Reynolds Distinguished Professor at N.C. State University, that “over the next 40 years, the number of jobs in the state could actually fall by 1.2 million rather than rise.”
The losses, according to a study he analyzes, would come in jobs like retail salespersons, cashiers, fast-food workers, office clerks, customer service representatives, janitors and cleaners, and auto service technicians.
And losses are least likely in “occupations requiring a high level of complex decision-making, like physicians, nurses, teachers and computer software developers.”
Can you say: education?
And Democrats aren’t telling the public-schools’ success story, raising hell and pushing back?
What am I missing?