Home > Uncategorized > Public schools need a champion not “competition”

Public schools need a champion not “competition”

Post on April 12, 2010 by 6 Comments »

The News & Observer’s story this morning about school board chair Ron Margiotta’s moonlighting on the board of a private academy that sees itself in direct competition with the public schools once again raises some fundamental questions about the commitment and motives of the narrow Board majority. What would Americans say if the head of the Postal Service also served on the board of Fed Ex? What if the Raleigh city manager also ran a private trash collection business on the side? What if the head of the Triangle Transit Authority also ran a private taxi service? People would rightfully be outraged at the conflict of interest.

As I noted last week in this article on the right’s ongoing effort to lift the state cap on the number charter schools last week:

For all of its current problems and challenges, our traditional public education system is already educating more kids, more effectively than at any time in its history. For the most part, our administrators and principals and teachers know what to do. Their biggest need is not “competition” or “entrepreneurial innovation,” it’s resources – the resources it takes to attract, develop and keep good teachers, to provide one-on-one tutoring, to construct and maintain top-flight facilities, and to successfully integrate hundreds of thousands of kids spread across scores of far flung and segregated communities. When North Carolina lifts this “cap” – the cap that has allowed even the state’s wealthiest communities to fire teachers and raise class sizes in recent months – that will be the time that the state gets serious about dealing with what ails the public schools.”

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Comments (Closed):6

  1. Joe Ciulla
    April 12, 2010 at 1:23 pm

    NC lost out on the “Race to the Top” Federal funding competition, and one of the reasons cited was our refusal to lift the cap on charter schools. Evidently President Obama and Arne Duncan are also part of the neocon right-wing conspiracy given they support lifting the cap.

  2. Rob Schofield
    April 12, 2010 at 1:31 pm

    Setting aside the irony of the far right worrying about North Carolina’s pursuit of federal Department of Ed money, this statement is simply untrue — Tennessee charter policies are just as restrictive as ours. That clearly wasn’t why NC lost out.

    As for our consistent criticism of the Prez and Duncan for being wrong on charters, you’ve just revealed another difference between Policy Watch and the Pope Empire groups — we’re willing to criticize and praise regardless of party. The far right groups here in Raleigh are thinly-disguised partisan front groups who almost never take Republicans to task for anything.

  3. Joe Ciulla
    April 12, 2010 at 2:41 pm

    Rob,

    It seems like you view anyone who is not “far left” (like you) must be “far right.” And as far as partisanship goes, most people I know, myself included, are utterly disgusted with both political parties. What’s funny to me is that I hear defenders of Washington Democrats rationalize the declining approval ratings as caused by the party not being liberal enough in their policy-making. Meanwhile, the Republican party thinks their route back to power lies in a “return” to their ultra-conservative routes. In my humble opinion, both are wrong.

    Don’t make assumptions about my motivations, you don’t know me. Our schools and students are getting screwed, it seems like every week we hear about more budget cuts. In this department, the Democratic party has been a big disappointment. Rather than having the guts to either increase taxes or cut spending elsewhere, they are just passing the budget cuts down to the classrooms. That is a failure in leadership. On the other hand, I haven’t seen any brilliant alternatives proposed by the Republicans either.

    Another disappointment to me has been the Democrat-led County Commission. One of the few things I agree with Stan Norwalk on is his proposal to create a county-wide APFO and impact fee for schools. We should have had one years ago. I see no progress being made on this.

    So drop the labels and give me an honest answer: Do you agree with the education cuts being handed down by the state legislature and county commission? Do you condone the inaction on a schools APFO?

  4. Rob Schofield
    April 12, 2010 at 3:09 pm

    Well, it sounds as if we need to get to know each other better, Joe. I’m glad to hear that you agree with the position that we have been espousing for years — namely, that the elephant in the room when it comes to public education is the failure of either party to provide adequate resources to get the job ( i.e., the single most important job of state and local government) done. For what it’s worth, we have also supported things like Norwalk’s idea and written scathing attacks on the realtors and homebuilders for years.

    In North Carolina, at the state level (where most of the money comes from), this failure is mostly the fault of Dems since they’ve held the reins of power. On the other hand, they are getting constantly and violently attacked by Repubs for spending and taxing too much already. Even the most modest effort to raise more revenue to fund schools produces an apoplectic reaction from the Tom Fetzers, Art Popes and Paul Stams of the world. As a practical matter, the virulent opposition from this crowd makes it impossible to get anything done.

    If tomorrow, the Repubs would come out in favor of new tax dollars to boost education, I gurantee that the majority of Dems would join in and we’d get something done. The problem is that whenever they do it alone, they get attacked.

  5. Joe Ciulla
    April 12, 2010 at 7:50 pm

    Rob,

    If raising taxes is what’s needed to adequately fund the school system, then why do they need the Repubs to come out in favor of it? Same goes with an APFO. The Dems have the majority to do both. Do the right thing, then make your case. No doubt, the Republicans will wail away at a tax increase and leverage it to the hilt in the Fall campaigns. But can the Republicans identify actions which could have been taken to adequately fund our schools, without increasing taxes?

    What’s more important, educating our children or maintaining political power?

    For the legislature and county commission to continue to pass down school budget cuts is, in my opinion, the worst kind of failure in leadership.

  6. gregflynn
    April 12, 2010 at 11:26 pm

    APFOs and Impact Fees require authorization by the General Assembly. APFOs have been in a legal grey area but have been struck down by NC Courts as essentially being unauthorized impact fees. This happened most recently in Union County. Only one county, Cabarrus, has specific APFO authority. Only three counties, Catawba, Chatham and Orange, have Impact Fee authority along with 22 municipalities.