Perdue’s budget proposal for K-12 education includes the following:
1. More money for the state’s “virtual high school”
This is not the worst of the group. Virtual high schools save taxpayers money and provide educational options to parents and kids. Bev has always had a thing for educational technology, so we expected some kind of funding increase in this area.
2. Additional early-college high schools
The best course of action would be to freeze expansion of the early college schools for a year or two and complete an evaluation of their performance. After all, the Gates Foundation recently admitted, “Many of the small [redesigned and early college] schools that we invested in did not improve students’ achievement in any significant way.”
3. $3 million added for low-income schools.
It is not clear how this money will be spent, but an increase in the Disadvantaged Student Supplemental Fund would not be the best use of taxpayer money.
4. Cuts at the state Department of Public Instruction and local school administrative staff.
Oh, yeah. DPI is a pretty bloated agency, and local school administrative staff, particularly central office staff, will not be missed. Sen. Phil Berger nails it, “What we need to do is put folks in the classroom. I don’t know that there’s just that much added value to the education we offer our students for what you get out of DPI.”
Finally, the N&O article offers some perspective from the NCAE, the teacher’s associunion.
Cecil Banks, a lobbyist for the N.C. Association of Educators, said he was pleased with Perdue’s statements and appreciated her urging local school boards use their federal stimulus money to pay teachers and assistant principals.
“It sounds like she’s going to continue the investment in public education,” and recognizes that it is the “underpinning of the kind of society that we want,” Banks said.
I am glad that the NCAE and Bev Perdue agree on the kind of society they want. So much for the rest of us.
