As we ready ourselves for another new calendar year and return to begin the second half of our school year, please remember all those people who could have done the right thing and helped public education more.
From delaying budgets, betraying voters, to expanding nontransparent vouchers, those who qualify for copious lumps of coal are many, but these are the top ten deserving recipients in terms of public education.
Tricia Cotham For Switching Parties To Create A Supermajority
She sold out.
Five previous terms in the NC General Assembly before running on a 2022 platform of pro-public education, pro-choice, and protections for all North Carolinians that got her elected in a heavily blue district and she…
sold out.
And before anyone talks about that “well she had to go with her heart and her convictions” excuse, the very things she said she would champion on her campaign website just months ago seem not to be important any longer.
Many of us remember what she said on that campaign website. She seems to want to forget about it. In fact, just the day she officially switched that same website which talked about her “priorities” after five previous terms terms was gone. Erased.
Just like her integrity.
She became the vote that ensures that another 1.5 billion dollars goes to unproven school choice “reforms” that take more money away from traditional public schools. Remember her tenure as an educator in public schools? Sure you do. It was on her website before she erased it.
Tim Moore For Making Biscuitville Look Bad
Simply put, it’s hard to “hug it out” with those who are making the very divides that separate us.
Especially someone like Tim Moore who is having to answer claims of causing the dissolution of a marriage in a possible abuse of power. Having admitted to the relationship with the named party, Moore claims to have ameliorated the situation and of course admit no fault.
While “Moore said he had an ‘on-again, off-again’ relationship with Jamie Liles Lassiter starting in 2019, and that it has since ended,” Moore has had a very “always on” relationship with those who want to erode public education and has been a direct cause of the alienation of affection between the state’s obligation to fully fund its public education system and reality.
And he said that they “hugged it out” at a Biscuitville.
Please don’t let one man ruin your love for Biscuitville.
Credit: unknown
Phil Berger Because He Is Phil Berger And Hates LEANDRO
Last October was the next step in undoing the Leandro decision.
Because it’s part of a bigger plan that deliberately coincides with the expansion of vouchers.
In a court order dated Oct. 20, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the appeal filed by Sen. Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore that a trial judge lacked the jurisdiction to say the state owes schools $677.8 million.
In its majority decision, Republican Associate Judge Phil Berger Jr. — the son of Sen. Berger — said many matters remain unresolved in the long-running Leandro school funding case. Among them, he wrote, is whether the prior order should apply to the whole state or just the five school districts that started the lawsuit.
“If public school students or local school boards who are not parties to this case believe the remedial order does not sufficiently address the educational failure in their districts, are they bound by the remedial order?” Berger Jr. wrote. “If so, how were their rights adjudicated without their presence in the suit — an elementary principle of jurisdictional law.”
It is not difficult to see that the NCGA was waiting for the state supreme court to become an extension of the political powers in Raleigh after the last election cycle.
Berger and Moore did not ignore Leandro. They never did.
Their immediate reaction was to not honor it – loudly and in public. And a plan to combat it was immediately implemented: take control of the state supreme court and overturn it.
Look at the drawing of new legislative maps. The newly released versions were only possible with a state supreme court reversing a judgement that the same court issued last year. If they did it with legislative maps, they can do it with the Leandro decision.
Throw in some Biscuitville meetings, a public records law change, a defection of parties by a “scorned” legislator, a prolonged budget process, some casino action, a Medicaid expansion poker game, and a lot of political grandstanding, this move to get the state supreme court to “reconsider” the Leandro decision is not that surprising.
Especially when this dynamic exists:
The Lawmakers Who Messed Up The NCHSAA And High School Athletics
There are changes that should have been made long ago about how the NCHSAA governs high school sports. Just the amount of money that it was sitting on during a time when schools were in need of funds did warrant investigation.
But the answer is not what the NC General Assembly put into law.
In short, the NCHSAA is a private entity that governs high school sports for public schools.
“The main sources of revenue for the NCHSAA annual operating budget come from revenue shares in playoff/championship contests, corporate support, membership dues, and officials’ registration. The NCHSAA does not receive funding from member schools’ regular season contests or direct funding from tax dollars or State funds.”
Those contests and membership dues come straight from high schools and are the fruits of work done by local coaches, athletic directors, parents, and students.
Apparently just in the past couple of years, the amount of money that the NCHSAA has had in surplus is over $40 million dollars. Wow!
The new law that now is in effect changes oversight more over to the State Superintendent. From the N&O report referred to above:
Oversight?
The same governing body that literally put into the recent budget new provisions to allow legislators to keep documents, meeting notes, and emails from being publicly viewed wants to talk about “transparency” of an already private entity that takes public school money.
Another irony here is that the people who are changing the oversight of the NCHSAA also talk about the amount of money supposedly that is surplus which should be going back to schools.
Did those lawmakers ever consider LEANDRO or the fact that our state woefully underfunds the public schools in this state while they themelves are sitting on billions of budget surpluses?
Any oversight of the NCHSAA should start with the coaches, athletic directors, and their school/county administration. They are the ones who make high school sports work.
And considering the amount of stipends “earned” and the responsibilities on top of being educators, coaches and athletic directors do more with less and create a fabric that keeps communities together.
The Sponsors Of The Parents Bill Of Rights Law
Below is a screenshot from the statutes of the General Assembly concerning the “duties” of teachers.
They include a variety of “duties,” some more defined than others: discipline, “teaching,” reporting, provide for well-being, medical care, keep order, etc.
Now throw in some other factors and variables that have a direct effect on those “duties” like poverty, hunger, sickness, apathy, lack of resources, overcrowding, and respect for the profession. It makes those duties in the above statute seem a little more expansive.
And the list keeps getting longer.
Apparently, teachers could have a new duty.
And on page 7:
Look closely at (5):
If parents know their students best as so many in education reform insist, then why would teachers have to inform parents how their students identify?
Those Who Drew The New Maps For 2024 Election
From the News & Observer:
“The congressional map will help determine which lawmakers will stay or go. The current makeup is an even 7-7 split between Democrats and Republicans. The new map favors Republicans in 10 districts and Democrats in three, with one competitive district.”
Phil Berger Again For Using Medicaid Expansion And The State Budget As A Tool For Getting Casinoes In NC.
Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger (R-Rockingham) rarely loses a hand in the political games that play such a prominent role in the work of North Carolina General Assembly.
But on Tuesday, Berger seemed to abide by the admonition in the famous Kenny Rogers’ song, “The Gambler”: “You gotta know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em.”
At an evening joint appearance with House Speaker Tim Moore, the Senate leader announced that he is, for the time being, abandoning his full court press to greatly expand casino gambling in the state.
Last week when the most conservative members of his own party balked at including four casinos in the state budget, an idea was hatched to pass a standalone bill tying Medicaid expansion to the casino legislation.
Casino supporters believed the lure of Medicaid expansion would win over enough Democrats to make up for the Republicans who were willing to vote “no.”
Democrats were not swayed. On Monday, the minority party in each chamber issued strongly worded statements of opposition. By Tuesday afternoon, Governor Roy Cooper called out the backroom casino plan.
“The Republican supermajority is breaking their promise to expand Medicaid and instead are using it to extort a shady, sole source casino deal that many of their own members find suspicious,” said Cooper. “Democratic legislators are rightfully disgusted and strongly oppose this scheme.”
In a late-night press conference at the legislature, Berger conceded the casinos and video lottery terminals (VLTs) would not advance as outlined under House Bill 149.
“Medicaid expansion will still be contingent on the budget becoming law,” said Berger. “The conference budget will not include any of the VLTs or the rural tourism districts. We think this is the best, the most prudent way for us to move forward.”
Berger was literally holding the budget and Medicaid expansion hostage with trying to pass gaming laws.
Tricia Cotham Again For Voucher Expansion
It’s happening.
Almost as if it was scripted and arranged beforehand with the switch of Rep. Tricia to the GOP over “personal grievances.”
The ultimate school choice bill.
You might want to look at this part:
There are a few things that should be completely understood about this type of “school choice” reform.
First, this bill focuses mostly on vouchers, which in North Carolina are called Opportunity Scholarships. In other states where vouchers have become a favored reform, those who use vouchers tend to be families who never sent their students to public schools in the first place. According to NCPE, states like Arizona (80%), New Hampshire (89%), and Wisconsin (75%) have high percentages of vouchers given to students who already attend private schools. Josh Cowen, a professor of Education Policy at the University of Michigan, states, “‘Fund students, not systems’ is just a cute ad campaign that really means ‘Tax breaks for existing private school parents.’”
Next, vouchers in most states and especially in North Carolina are not transparently monitored for effectiveness. It is deliberately hard to see if a private school is “underperforming” because they are not required to share data from standardized tests that public schools have to administer. To measure the effectiveness of a voucher would require a lot more oversight that pro-school choice people are not willing to give.
Vouchers have never been shown to improve educational outcomes. The closest thing to an in-depth study of the North Carolina voucher system as it stands occurred in 2018 and it was conducted through the Friday Institute at NC State University.
That same report refers to the overwhelming amount of vouchers (>90%) going to religious schools – many of which opened after the voucher system was put into place.
Furthermore, the popularity of vouchers in NC has never really been that high. From 2019:
That’s from Phil Berger. The bill mentioned above sponsored by the former public school administrator Cotham expands the eligibility of vouchers so that the money can be “claimed” and thus fuel more “need” and therefore more money to be invested in it.
But here is probably what is most egregious about vouchers. Supposedly it is about “school choice.” Even the bill above is partly titled “Choose Your School.” Yet that is a misnomer.
Why? Because “School Choice” here really means “Schools’ Choice.” While those religious schools that are already tax exempt are allowed to take tax payer money to operate without the transparency of student achievement, they also have the ability to limit whom they admit into their schools.
You don’t fit the mold? No admittance. Already have a track record of discipline? No admittance. Special needs student with an IEP? A much higher rate of no admittance.
Josh Cowen (who was mentioned above) has also stated that vouchers help create a system in which three separate categories house all private schools in a voucher state.
- “High performing schools that don’t need students or vouchers” (and probably have a price tag well above what the average per-pupil expenditure is for each student in the state).
- “Sub-prime schools desperate for money to stay open.”
- New schools opening just for the money – usually to fund a church (which is not taxed).”
It’s almost like he was talking about North Carolina specifically.
Mark Robinson Because Of Gaslit Attacks On Public Education
Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson has gone a long way in giving the facade that he is defending our public schools from teaching a “version” of history that “indoctrinates” students with radical beliefs.
In 2021, he started a petition to lobby the very state school board he serves on.
If you have not been following our NC Lt. Governor and current front-runner for the GOP gubernatorial nomination, he is a staunch believer that this country does not have system racism.
From a 2021 Facebook post that was recently highlighted on then NC Policy Watch:
“These divisive standards consistently separate Americans into groups in an effort to undermine our unity. The proposed standards indoctrinate our students against our great country and our founders.”
Many of those same founders owned slaves and those same founders intentionally ignored the issue of slavery in writing policy for the nation when it gained its independence.
But focus on the word “indoctrination” here. According to Merriam Webster online the word “indoctrinate” means:
So here is a man who is telling us what we should teach our students by intentionally pushing his point of view as to what should not be included using his politically partisan social media accounts to keep students from being indoctrinated by a radical agenda.
Sounds like indoctrination in a classic sense.
Then he went on to create F.A.C.T.S.
And you can still issue a complaint on the Lt. Gov.’s official website.
Please note that not a single complaint has led to a merited inestigation of any teachers in this state.
Here are the criteria for submission:
What to submit:
- Examples of discrimination or harassment related to a student’s faith, ethnicity, worldview, or political beliefs;
- Examples of unequal, inconsistent, or disparate treatment of students in the enforcement of school rules and/or in disciplinary matters;
- Examples of students being subjected to indoctrination according to a political agenda or ideology, whether through assigned work, teacher comments, or a hostile classroom environment;
- Examples of students being required to disclose details regarding their individual race/ethnicity, sexual preference, religious ideology, or economic status
- Examples of students being exposed to inappropriate content or subject matter in the classroom, including matters relating to substance abuse, profanity, or of a sexual nature.
Examples concerning faith, ethnicity, worldview, or political beliefs? Examples of being subjected to indoctrination according to a political agenda or ideology? Examples of disclosing details regarding their individual race/ethnicity, sexual preference, religious ideology, or economic status? Examples of being exposed to inappropriate content or subject matter including matters of a sexual nature?
And how unsurprisingly ironic that the man who claims to be weeding out “worldviews” or “political beliefs” or “political agendas” or the use of “individual race/ethnicity, sexual preference, religious ideology” would want students to study people like Hitler and Mao.
Recently at a Moms For Liberty conference in Philadelphia, Robinson said:
“And here’s the thing: Whether you’re talking about Adolf Hitler; whether you’re talking about Chairman Mao; whether you’re talking about Stalin; whether you’re talking about Pol Pot; whether you’re talking about Castro in Cuba; or whether you’re talking about a dozen other despots all around the globe; it is time for us to get back and start reading some of those quotes.”
Read that again.
“And here’s the thing: Whether you’re talking about Adolf Hitler; whether you’re talking about Chairman Mao; whether you’re talking about Stalin; whether you’re talking about Pol Pot; whether you’re talking about Castro in Cuba; or whether you’re talking about a dozen other despots all around the globe; it is time for us to get back and start reading some of those quotes.”
Catherine Truitt For Her “Work” On The Teacher Pipeline
Take a close look at this recent tweet by the NC State Superintendent, Catherine Truitt.
Notice what that slide says: WHY IS THERE NO ONE IN THE PIPELINE?
She says that the problem can be solved with “advanced teaching” roles.
So, how many teachers wish that they can have more responsibilities added to an already full plate of duties and expectations which are tied to value-added metrics controlled by people who do not understand public education?
What that tweet post above proves is the deliberate ignorance of what has really choked the teacher pipeline.
Maybe these things?
caffeinated rage 