Feel free to bookmark this entry for future reference. You might want to peruse it again when you hear campaign claims this year about the Republican-written 2011-12 state budget and its impact on education spending.

The following information is a news release from House Majority Leader Paul Stam, R-Wake, with the title “General Assembly’s Actual Public Education K-12 Budget Compared With Governor Bev Perdue’s Proposal for 2011-12”:

Raleigh — Governor Perdue has criticized the state budget for “extreme cuts” to public education.  She insists that a ¾ percent regressive sales tax increase (a 16% increase in the state’s share) was and is necessary to avoid dire consequences to the public schools.  The ink was not even dry on the state budget before she denounced it as destroying and devastating public education.

However, Governor Perdue proposed fewer dollars for K-12 public education in her requested 2011-12 budget than the legislature actually adopted.  Let’s examine the facts:

1.    Fact: There is less than 1 percent difference in the direct appropriations for K-12 public education budget than the Governor proposed.  The actual difference is .57 of one percent directly appropriated in the ratified budget.  This takes into account that the More at Four Program was shifted to the Department of Health and Human Services meaning that $65,011,651 was taken from the Department of Public Instruction and used by the .Health and Human Services for prekindergarten programs. 

The numbers look like this:  The Governor proposed a total appropriation of $7,572,712,912.   The ratified budget has a total of $7,529,503,708 once the $65,011,651for More at Four is credited. The difference is $43.2 million (0.57 percent).

2.    Fact:  Governor Perdue’s proposed budget shifted $74.5 million in school bus replacement, tort claims and worker’s compensation that had been the state’s responsibility onto the local school boards.  But the General Assembly’s ratified budget continued these items as state expenses:  $35,223,642 for school buses; $4,599,225 for tort claims and $34,648,327 for worker’s compensation totaling $74.5 million.

3.    Fact: Taking Fact 1 and Fact 2 together the General Assembly provided $31.3 million more in funding for K-12 public education than Governor Bev Perdue even requested in her budget proposal for 2011-2012.

The Republican leadership in the General Assembly also enacted a number of other notable legislative accomplishments for education in 2011. 

1.    Removed the cap on charter schools and provided for enhanced enrollment growth.

2.    Reduced End of Grade testing, leaving only tests required by federal law while using true assessments of our schools to measure student achievement with ACT tests in 8th, 10th and 11th grades.  These are based on national norms.

3.    Created a budget that produced a net gain of state supported teachers despite the budget shortfall.  The number of state funded education employees actually increased by 3.7 percent (4720).  It is true that federally and locally funded employees decreased by a total of 9,407.  But this decrease would have been far worse if Governor Perdue’s $74.5 million money grab from local school boards had occurred.

4.    Teachers were provided liability insurance by state government at no expense to them.  This can save them between $120-$400 a year.

This information is likely to come in handy as advocates of higher taxes and indiscriminate public school spending continue to make dubious claims during the upcoming legislative session.