Education debate is not just about the numbers

[G_j]

http://www.ncpolicywatch.com/2014/09/25/education-debate-is-not-just-about-the-numbers/

9/25/2014 at 12:42 pm
Written by Chris Fitzsimon

The propaganda outfits on the right are doing all they can this election season to distort the numbers about the recent cuts to education made by the folks currently in charge in Raleigh.

It seems like every day brings another report or column or chart from a think tank or advocacy group claiming the General Assembly has actually increased education spending in the last few years and given all teachers one of the biggest raises in history.

Neither claim is true of course. Education funding has been cut. Classes are larger as teaching positions have been slashed. There are fewer teacher assistants in the classrooms in the early grades.

There are not enough textbooks to go around and not only are teachers having to pay for supplies out of their own pockets because of funding cuts, last year the General Assembly abolished a tax deduction for teachers forced to spend their own money to buy things that students need.

As for the teacher raise, the confusing plan eventually passed by the House and Senate and signed by Governor Pat McCrory gave newer teachers a significant raise but left many veteran teachers with barely an increase at all.

An analysis by the N.C. Budget Tax Center shows that a teachers with 14 years experience are getting a $272 raise, or an increase of 0.7 percent. A 30-year teacher with a master’s degree will be getting $666 dollars more this year, a bump of 1.2 percent.

But here’s something the spin doctors on the right don’t understand. It is not just about the numbers, no matter how hard they massage them to make it appear that legislative leaders and Governor Pat McCrory have increased funding for public schools.

It’s about the barrage of anti-public school and anti-teacher rhetoric from the Right for the past several years. That’s why the think tanks trying to play with the numbers are having such a hard time breaking through.

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[valerief]

1. Hopefully, our journalists--Stewart, Colbert, Simpson, Griffin, Borowitz--can get the

truth across to our populace.