Welcome

budget |’bəjit| noun 1 an estimate of income and expenditure for a set period of time: keep within the household budget. [as adj.] a budget deficit. (New Oxford American Dictionary)

Bulletin Board

  • The John W. Pope Civitas Institute will hold its monthly poll luncheon on Wednesday, February 23, at 4:00 p.m. at the Cardinal Club (Wachovia Building) in downtown Raleigh. To register, call 919-834-2099 or go to http://www.nccivitas.org/events.
  • The North Carolina History Project would like educators and homeschool parents to submit lesson plans suitable for middle and high school courses in North Carolina history. Please provide links to NC History Project encyclopedia articles and other primary and secondary source material, if possible. Go to http://www.northcarolinahistory.org/edu_corner for further information.

  • Become a member of JLF’s Freedom Clubs! We have seven regional clubs covering every part of North Carolina, so there is one near you and your like-minded conservative friends. For more information, visit https://www.johnlocke.org/support.

  • Check out our research newsletter archive.

CommenTerry

Last week, Rob Christensen of The News & Observer called Governor Bev Perdue’s budget proposal a "wily political budget." He pointed out that her budget accounted both for the concerns of the business community, who seek lower corporate income taxes, and those of social conservatives, who do not want legalized video poker or a privatized state liquor system. Hence, it was both wily and political; perhaps we’ll use the term wilitical.

Christensen did not discuss the public school budget at length, but Governor Perdue’s pledge to preserve all state-funded public school teachers and teacher assistants is a tip of the hat to her most stalwart political supporters — the North Carolina Association of Educators (NCAE). That part of the governor’s budget undoubtedly pleased NCAE leaders, but they were not completely satisfied. (Wilitical special interest groups that employ teams of lobbyists seldom are.) Soon after the governor presented her budget plan to the public, the group’s leaders complained that the elimination of non-instructional, transportation, instructional support, and administrative positions would put "intense pressure" on local district budgets.

Like Autonomous Robotic Organisms from the planet Cybertron, there is more to these proposed cuts than meets the eye. As John Hood pointed out in yesterday’s Daily Journal column, the governor hopes that this "intense pressure" will produce pushback from local districts and county commissions, thereby forcing the hand of the Republican majorities in the General Assembly. Hood explained, "As for the cost-shift to counties, Perdue is counting on angry school board members and commissioners — many of whom are now Republicans for the first time — to pressure GOP legislators to restore state funding, thus further reducing their capacity to reject her sales-tax proposal." Despite their public protests, Perdue’s NCAE allies undoubtedly hope for a similar result.

In this way, Perdue’s wilitical budget appears to balance the concerns of public school educators, who resist cuts to instructional positions, and fiscal conservatives, who seek budget cuts to non-instructional personnel and administrators. In reality, it does not attempt to balance competing interests at all. It is designed to further one interest — the powerful public school lobby — by compelling school board members and county commissioners to do their bidding.

Of course, the actual scope of Perdue’s proposed personnel cuts may not produce the kind of "intense pressure" that she and the NCAE hope they will. If the legislature agrees to her cuts, each school district would have to eliminate an average of one central office position, 2.5 instructional support positions, and just over three school building administrative positions. In these areas, retirements and turnover will dramatically reduce the need for actual layoffs.

Proposed reductions in non-instructional (clerical and custodial) support and transportation (bus driver) positions would necessitate a fifteen and 16.5 average position reduction respectively. To put this in perspective, North Carolina operates over 2,500 district and charter schools. A statewide reduction of up to 1,700 non-instructional support positions is less than one position per school. In addition, the proposed elimination of up to 1,900 transportation positions would force localities to find much-needed efficiencies during a time when fuel costs continue to rise.

Republican legislators may be tempted to use Perdue’s budget proposals as a starting point for their own, but I hope they consider the ideas offered in an excellent publication just released by the John Locke Foundation, Protecting Families and Businesses: A Plan for Fiscal Balance and Economic Growth. There is nothing wilitical about it … just common sense and prudence.

Random Thought

I would like to start a movement to restore the name "wiff-waff" to the game commonly called "ping-pong" and "table tennis."

Facts and Stats

Eliminating Dropout Prevention Grants would produce savings of $26,031,366 over two years. Consistent with the findings and recommendations of the John Locke Foundation, Governor Perdue’s budget ends the program.

Mailbag

I would like to invite all readers to submit announcements, as well as their personal insights, anecdotes, concerns, and observations about the state of education in North Carolina. I will publish selected submissions in future editions of the newsletter. Anonymity will be honored. For additional information or to send a submission, email Terry at [email protected].

Education Acronym of the Week

UERS — Uniform Education Reporting System

Quote of the Week

"We will demand that all teachers and administrators meet our standards of excellence or we will replace them."
— Governor Beverley Perdue, State of the State Address, February 14, 2011

Click here for the Education Update archive.