As North Carolina school systems and charter schools debate whether to open under a Plan B model or under Plan C (remote), it is strange that we as public school teachers, staff, parents, and students have nor heard from State Superintendent Mrk Johnson in quite a while..

None of those once plentiful inbox-filling emails.

No glossy flyers.

No press releases from Graham Wilson about elite insiders.

No mention of the Deep State.

Just… silence.

It would make sense that the leader of the public school system in the state be one of the first to speak out about what the General Assembly is doing to help schools in this unprecedented time.

Be reminded that on Thursday, January 5^th, 2017, just days after he took office, Mark Johnson stated the following at his first State Board of Education meeting:

“Every day that we don’t take bold actions for our students is a day that our students lose. Every day that we don’t take bold actions for our teachers is a day that our teachers lose. Complacency is the antithesis of urgency, so I ask that we act with urgency and not be complacent in anything that we do. If we don’t act with urgency, we will continue to betray students and we will continue to lose teachers and have difficulty retaining them and recruiting them.”

The operative word there is “urgency.” Johnson really gives it renewed vigor juxtaposing it with the word “complacency.”

In that same prepared statement, he also said,

“We have a lot of issues and challenges facing us. We have to own them. We have to own that we need to do something about testing. We have to own that there are students graduating from our schools that we are giving diplomas to that are not prepared for college or the workforce. We are the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. It is our job to own those challenges and find solutions. We must be innovative to find solutions.”

“We” have some really big issues right now.

So much for “urgency.”

So much for “we.”

So much for “bold.”

So much for “ownership.”

So much for “action.”