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BIG CITY – Like a hurricane

Posted on June 9, 2011 by Staff

by KIRK ROSS

The governor went up to Washington, D.C., a week or so ago to join the president and the head of FEMA for the announcement of the official start of hurricane season. On the same day, weather watchers were tracking their first tropical system in the Atlantic.

Meanwhile, in Raleigh, a different kind of storm was bearing down on the state.

Having lived a good portion of my life in hurricane-prone areas, I’ve seen my share of storms and the damage they can bring. Of all of them, nothing really compares to what Floyd did to Eastern North Carolina. I pray future storms never even get close.

I saw the effects of the floods from Floyd first-hand as an education reporter, traveling to Eastern N.C. to cover the aid our local schools were extending to the hardest-hit areas.

Hundreds of desks and supplies sitting idle in the various storage sites of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools were loaded up and hauled east to places that even in the best of times were struggling to keep enough books and seats on hand. Walking through newly scrubbed walls where you could just barely still see the high-water mark, I was struck not only by the impact of the storm, but by how even in good times there is a great disparity between the relatively well-funded districts like ours and the ones fending in less prosperous portions of our state.

Spending much of the last month monitoring the budget negotiations in Raleigh was a little like watching one of those devastating storms bear down on the state. As much as I am rooting for a better outcome than what’s on the table, it is obvious that no matter what bill the governor ultimately signs, there are schools from the mountains to the coast that are going to be underwater. We’re going to take a hit here, but we’ll be all right. We tend to go to the wall for our schools. Here, the hole the legislature is fixin’ to blow in every school system’s budget will be mitigated. It won’t be pretty, but it won’t be the kind of devastation predicted in other, less-affluent places where the state dollars make up a much larger portion of education funding.

I am wondering how this community, founded in the name of education and full of people who proudly call themselves “educators,” will respond when this storm hits.

It’s not just about money. The dignity of the concept of public education is at stake.

The other day, Rep. Thom Tillis, who is Speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives, said that all you teachers don’t care about students. The exact quote went: “They don’t care about kids. They don’t care about classrooms. They only care about their jobs and their pensions.”

(He declined to also mention that your baby is ugly, but you just know he was thinking it.)

That’s the same guy who helped push through a budget that cuts more than $100 million in K-12 education in a rapidly growing state, taking us to the bottom of the rankings in per-pupil funding. As one legislator noted during a recent budget debate, it means we’ll be in the uncomfortable position of looking up to South Carolina.

Yes, that’s right. South. Carolina. Chew on that.

The budget also terminates highly successful teaching programs and innovations in approaches. We will lose many brilliant young teachers who are doing important work in schools that need them the most. The legislature is also taking steps to further centralize school policy and curriculum in a way that reflects the more conservative nature of the new legislative leadership. Keep in mind, they’re just warming up.

Unchecked, this juggernaut of ideology promises to roll back years of hard-won advancements in education. So, if you haven’t done so already, now would be a good time to stand up if you believe in such things. If you’re a teacher, you might want to start by calling the speaker at 733-3451 and letting him know you care about the kids you teach.

He seems to be misinformed as to your intentions.

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