And then consider how much money has been steered into unregulated private school vouchers here in North Carolina, how much corporate taxes have been lowered over the last decade, and how much aid was never given to our neighbors in western NC after Hurricane Helene.
All while sitting on surpluses that continue to grow because NC has so much politicized how we are to fund the very services that our state constitution stipulates.
Look no further than how we fund our public schools.
If a classroom in a school building has 24 students in it, does that mean it should require only 80% of the heating and cooling that a classroom in the same building that has 30 students in it?
If a bus that transports 50 students on a specific route which travels 15 miles, does it require 50% less money to fuel than a bus that travels the same amount of miles with 100 students?
Do the lights in a gymnasium need less energy to illuminate a physical education class if there are fewer students in it than the next period’s class?
Can a school totally control the daily attendance of all enrolled students when so many factors work in people’s lives that can alter their ability to be physically present on any given day?
Are you aware of the services that public schools are lawfully required to offer students and their families, especially those with disabilities?
Have you ever been in a public school and witnessed the number of meals that it serves to students both before classes start and during the name lunch periods that it may have?
People who continually think that we should go to an “attendance” based model for funding schools either deliberately ignore what it means to actually fund schools or are intentionally clouding others’ understanding of how their tax dollars work.
Buildings don’t change sizes and roads don’t get shorter because attendance changes. 504 plans and IEP’s don’t lose their legal status because the student is in a school with lower attendance than other students. Food still needs to be prepared.
caffeinated rage 