In an email message sent out by the NCGOP titled “Business as usual Bev,” the North Carolina Republican Party complains that “Governor Bev Perdue called herself the ?Education Governor? and shortly thereafter slashed the state?s education budget while continuing to fund pork projects.” [Unfortunately there does not seem to be a link to the email message available.] First, it is not at all clear that being an “education governor” is inconsistent with cutting or even slashing the education budget. Conservatives–as opposed to Republicans–have been pointing out for years that there is no positive correlation between higher education spending and education quality. In fact research suggests that there may actually be a negative correlation.
If the governor had actually “slashed” education spending one would hope that a political party that claims to believe in limited government and school choice might actually applaud her actions. But the fact is that total spending on education, including the federal stimulus money, was increased by well over $200 million dollars by Governor Perdue. I guess the NCGOP would really be upset with the John Locke Foundation’s Can Do Budget from last year–we proposed to cut education spending by about $200 million dollars, and this is after the stimulus money is factored in.
