Remember that our NC General Assembly has refused to fully fund public schools according to the LEANDRO decision.

And as it stands, NC ranks near the very bottom of state rankings for funding public schools.

Then there is the one-edged sword that the NCGA wields over local LEAs when they dictate mandates for public school systems to fulfill yet refuse to provide money to enact forcing locals to find ways to foot the bill. (Remember class size chaos?)

The ability for a local school system (whether county or city based) to be able to operate successfully and keep up with legal mandates set by the federal government or the stingy NC General Assembly depends on the local economy and its revenue stream.

That’s why a headline like this is scary.

“To balance the budget, county staff proposes 4% cuts in most departments and a 4% cut in K-12 education.

In slide after slide of a presentation at a joint meeting with the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners, Buncombe County Board of Education and Asheville City Board of Education on Jan. 16, county budget staff outlined $17.6 million in cuts across most departments.”

That’s just Buncombe County. What about all the other counties affected by Helene that do not have the revenue bringing capacities of Asheville and whose economies are dependent on agriculture and livestock?