Takes a “lot of guts” for two “leaders” to deflect blame that should be targeted at a lack of leadership on the part of many in Raleigh by throwing public education “under the bus.”

Takes a “lot of guts” for these two “leaders” to talk about the shortcomings of public education during a pandemic during which they helped make sure that a new budget would not be passed for the state.

As a pandemic hit the state and forced schools to go virtual and educators had to adjust their teaching and delivery, state lawmakers in the North Carolina General Assembly really did nothing.

Except talk a lot.

From today’s News & Observer:

And it takes a “lot of guts” for these two “leaders” to talk about what has and has not happened in schools when they themselves have done so much TO public education in the many years proceeding this pandemic.

But if they want to try and quantify what has happened to education during the pandemic, then they can also take a quantitative assessment and review their voting records on the following actions and subsequent attempts to alter those actions.

• Removal of due process rights for new teachers to keep them from advocating loudly for students and schools.
• Removal graduate degree pay bumps for teachers entering the profession.
• Making educators the only state employees to not receive longevity pay
• Instituting a Value Added Measurement system which is an amorphous and unproven way to measure teacher effectiveness.
• Pushing for merit pay when no evidence exists that it works.
• Attacks on teacher advocacy groups like NCAE.
• Creation a revolving door of standardized tests that do not measure student growth.
• Lowering of the amount of money spent per pupil in the state when adjusted for inflation.
• Removal class size caps.
• Institution of a Jeb Bush style school grading system that is unfair and does nothing more than show how poverty affects public schools.
• Creation of an uncontrolled and unregulated system of vouchers called Opportunity Grants.
• Fostering of charter school growth that has not improved the educational landscape and siphons money from the public school system.
• Creation of failing virtual schools outsourced to private industry.
• Allowing for an Innovation School District to be constructed.
• Elimination of the Teaching Fellows Program and brought it back as a former shell of itself.
• Creation of an atmosphere of disrespect for teachers that teaching candidate numbers in colleges and universities have dropped over 30%.

There’s the real “disaster” and “waste.”