Yesterday in an attempt to deflect attention away from his championing policies that have hurt public schools in North Carolina, Sen. Ralph Hise decided to deliver a math lesson for teachers and others who came to the All Out for May 1st march and rally.

“For every minute NCAE protesters spent with Republican senators, 125 kids missed school for the day.”

Well, that’s some common core math from a man who already has shown a propensity for playing with numbers.

From last November 27th’s News & Observer:

State elections officials and state Sen. Ralph Hise have settled a long-pending complaint alleging he violated campaign finance laws between 2013 and 2016.

Hise’s campaign committee will pay the state elections board $4,000 to reimburse the cost of investigating the allegations, and pay $500 into a civil penalty and forfeiture fund that helps fund schools.

“I appreciate the board’s staff for its fairness and professionalism,” Hise said in a statement released by his campaign. “After cooperating fully to resolve bookkeeping mistakes and make clear our campaign’s expenditures were completely legitimate, I’m pleased the facts won the day and that my family can move on.”

He was accused of loaning his campaign $50,000 but repaying himself $60,000 over a three-year period. He was also accused of failing to report more than $9,000 from nine political action committees and of failing to give complete information about contributors in his financial disclosure statements.

Hise submitted amended financial disclosure reports earlier this year in response to the state board’s investigation.

Funny how Hise simply makes the number of  republican senators visited inside their offices the only variable in what was a rather a simplistically partisan viewpoint of the power of May 1st.

Did it even cross Hise’s mind that many of the people who met with legislators were never chronicled? There were lots of meetings outside of the offices. And multiple teachers have expressed that many of the senators were simply “busy” or “not in the office.”

Many a lawmaker was in the crowd meeting with people outside. They went to engage with the people who came from everywhere in the state to Raleigh. They thought maybe walking a few yards to the people they represent was the least they could for those who traveled in some cases hundreds of miles.

Hise was seen walking from the legislative building to the office building on Halifax Mall and at no point made an effort to reach out to all of the people who came to Raleigh to talk about issues.

Personally I met with over ten lawmakers, only one of which was in the office. The rest of those meetings were in hallways or an open area with many engaging in conversations. Those lawmakers were making themselves accessible. Did Hise do the same thing?

But if Sen. Ralph Hise wants to play around with math then maybe we could throw in some more numbers.

• Every breath Sen. Hise takes while serving in this legislative session, over 20% of our public school students still lives in poverty.
• During the time Hise has been a state senator, per-student state funding for support personnel has dropped 9% (1).
• Since Hise has been in office, enrollment in teacher preparation programs in NC has dropped over 25% and the number of high school students identifying teaching as a possible pursuit as a profession has gone down over 50% (1).
• During the last two terms of Hise’s tenure, the number of uninsured children in NC has increased by 20K (1).

There are numerous others that could be mentioned, but that would add to the sum. And we know Sen. Hise has a problem with numbers.

1. Courtesy of the NC Justice Center.