The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Education (HASOE) report is a frustrating document.
Let’s talk about what they propose to spend money on.
$4,350,355 (FY 2010-2011) for the Focused Education Reform pilot program. The Public School Forum, who will receive a portion of this money, has no business complaining about teacher layoffs. Put simply, the House chose to sacrifice teacher positions so that the Forum could finish their pilot program (see Opportunity Cost).
$13,000,000 (recurring) for Dropout Prevention Grants. This expenditure is unconscionable.
$1,228,350 (recurring) for the Tarheel ChalleNGe Academy. The program is located in Sampson County. Larry Bell (D – Sampson, Wayne) is the Vice Chair of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Education (HASOE). I just thought you would like to know that.
$2,108,434 (FY 2010-2011) for Appropriations to Non-Public School Organizations. I don’t like pass-through funding, but even if I did, I would find these funding priorities really, really strange. Communities in Schools and Teacher for America have strong track records in North Carolina but don’t receive the most funding.
Anyway, Teacher Cadet and NC Network funds are small payoffs to NCAE and Project Enlightenment is a payoff to the Wake County Public School System. Individual pass-through recipients include the following: Communities in Schools ($160,750), Schools Attuned ($820,911), ExplorNet ($300,000), Teacher Cadet ($60,000), NC Network ($312,625), Science Olympiad ($22,500), Teach for America ($50,000), NC Math & Science ($100,000), and Project Enlightenment ($200,000).
