The 2014 legislative session may be six months away, but it's very much alive in the minds of people who care about education in North Carolina.
If you missed it during the holidays, be sure to read John Frank's piece on the prospects for a teacher pay raise. Frank reports that Republican legislative leaders say it's needed but don't agree on how to go about it.
Meanwhile, the League of Women Voters of Charlotte-Mecklenburg will hold a forum this Saturday on how the state budget affects education close to home. Titled "What happens in Raleigh matters in Mecklenburg," the session is from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Dec. 7 at the YWCA, 3420 Park Road.
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Speakers include Ann Clark, deputy superintendent of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools; John Dornan, former director of the Public School Forum of North Carolina; and Tazra Mitchell, a budget and tax policy analyst for the N.C. Justice Center.
For details or to RSVP, contact Mary Klenz, maryklenz@gmail.com or 704-542-9858.
Posts
26 comments:
How about a tax payer speaking?
I would be happy to make a speech?
Just shut up and pay your taxes.
Someone smarter than you will know what to do with it.
And they won't waste a bit.
Maybe they should hold the Saturday session at Mayor/Gov McCrorys house in the front yard? Its 3 blocks east of the YWCA and it really might drive the message for Pat? Seems he has forgotten what city gave him his start. Keith W. Hurley
9:18, I'd sure love to know what percentage of North Carolinians pay state income tax.
There are not enough people pulling the wagon. And the road is uphill. Everyone wants the free ride. They are not even willing to just get out and walk on their own.
Dear Republicans - can't agree on how to give teachers a raise? It's simple. Reinstate the moderate and logical pay scale that served well for decades! It was the unspoken contract with teachers and is the only fair way to compensate them. You have caused pay REGRESSION that teachers did not deserve! Put the teachers back on the promised step where they are supposed to be!This is not rocket science!
It MUST be ROCKET SCIENCE! 5 years and counting...
More speeches, citizen and teachers focus groups and millions of more dollars wasted on pay for performance test creation evaluation nonsense.It is past the breaking point.The quality of anyone coming into or staying in the teaching profession has been comprimised.
Dear Democrats -
Why did you cut and freeze teacher salaries in the first place?
04/28/2009
RALEIGH -- North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue has cut the pay of all state employees and teachers by half a percent. Perdue signed an executive order Tuesday that says employees will receive 10 hours of flexible time off in exchange for the loss in pay.
Teacher standards have definitely been compromised...
The General Assembly should undo 80% of what it did in 2013, starting with the way it punished underpaid educators for trying to get master's degrees and have job security. You can still fire bad teachers with tenure. Democrats and Republicans alike need to acknowledge that drill and test is a failed educational policy. Disrespect is driving good teachers out.
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DON'T FORGET TO TAKE A....
... copy of the latest NC Fiscal Research Divisions forecast of first, second and third quarter revenues.
This group of people has been dead-on-the-money with its NC revenue forecasts over the last six years.
And just for good measure, somebody get an accurate report on how much the General Assembly believes it will have to return to Washington for unemployment and medical payments.
Bolyn McClung
Pineville
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The US Post Office looses 42 BILLION dollars per year. That is a drop in the bucket compared to money lost spent in our country falling out of the top 25 in world education rankings.
Never has more money been lost and wasted with the words, "It's for the children"!
Bolyn is right on in this case. Once again folks like 3:16 are clueless to reality. However it is probably because of their failed public education and their drinking of the democrat koolaid. NC can not print money like the feds do. NC's fiscal picture is bleak.
Colorado thinks legalizing and taxing marijauna will save them financally. Is that the way you want NC to go? California classrooms are suffering for all the students lighting up around schools.
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/12/04/4518133/obama-in-speech-to-focus-on-income.html
Where is the teachers pay disparity talk from this huckster?
he wasted 10 trillion in 5 yrs and not a penny toward teacher pay while pro sports athletes haul in 50 million annually and get worshipped as gods? pleaseeeeeeeee
That panel is severely biased towards the pro-government/socialist end of the spectrum. No parents? No taxpayers? No home-schoolers or charter school representatives? No conservatives?
I'd hardly describe that panel as "people concerned about education"; more like "people on the take from the tax paying suckers".
It's a dog and pony (or more accurately dog and donkey) show.
Garth...
Spot on.
The president plans to deliver an address Wednesday (today) to argue his case that income inequality and wage stagnation are threatening upward mobility and retirement security. The speech comes amid growing national and international attention to economic disparities - from the writings of Pope Francis to the protests of fast-food workers in the U.S.
With the mindset our Socialist President has regarding "income iquality" and his ongoing push for income redistribution, things will continue to deteriorate in the United States.
Instead of demanding a better education system and that students stay in school and graduate, he wants to continue to damn our free market system and force companies to pay what the market will not bear.
Getting government out of the private sector, investing in USA manufactoring and other sectors that will keep jobs here instead of going overseas, will help competition in the workplace by creating higher paying jobs.
So when people leave the low wage jobs for other opportunities, the Mc Donald's and super retailers of the world will start having to compete to keep help, thus driving up wages.
People on the front lines - teachers and the military - are always the first to get royally screwed.
Yeah, "international attention to economic disparaties".
That means that our people make too much money for what they do when compared to the rest of the world.
The US is Nirvana for unskilled and uneducated labor.
Income inequality won't stop until those at the bottom in our society are paid what those at the bottom of other societies are paid.
Considering that a college educated Filipina can earn $500 a month as a domestic helper in Hong Kong or Singapore (both of which have higher education levels than the US), I'd say the pay at bottom in the US has a long way to go.
Down.
So folks at the bottom had better enjoy their good fortune while it lasts.
Because we're headed toward the same future as Mexico for a large part of our economy.
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THIS WEEKEND’S MEETING
I’m no longer attending public functions for public education, but if I were to go to this one I’d want to hear if the requests being made to Raleigh come with promises for results.
Public education is entering a new relationship with local governments all across the country. This happened during the Great Recession when taxpayers discovered that education quality didn’t drop with the reduction of funding. I’m not saying it improved. It just didn’t change.
An example is transportation. All across the western U.S. bus service was cut. Parents found ways to get their children to school. Textbooks have been cut back. Heat and air conditioning have been limited. And the ultimate: school days extended without changes in teacher pay.
So, when these new supporters of public education go to Raleigh they are going to have to show a plan.
Can they do that? …in writing?
Bolyn McClung
Pineville, NC
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http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/dec/4/obama-growing-income-inequality-defining-challenge/
obama and the pope
yuckkkkkkkkkkk ...
Community organizers in Charlotte promised the achievement gap would disappear in CMS schools if the urban schools were rebuilt/replaced/built new like the suburban schools following the Cappichione court case. The CMS BOE, the county commissioners and the business community nearly bankrupted this county doing so. What did we get? Barely a few points movement, which disappeared at the next test revision. Everyone believed back then integrated schools meant there was no achievement gap. Rose colored glasses filled rallies and meeting rooms. Luckily, the first NC ABC testing had kicked in and we all saw the truth. The CMS BOE did a magnificent job shuffling student assignments around enough to keep from having comparisons made. During a 4 year span, my middle class subdivision, which included black middle class families to the surprise of Fannie, had the middle school assignment changed 3 times.
Politicians are tired of these empty promises that do not pan out and excuses always made like the taxpayers were too stingy and was not give enough money. There just was not enough money thrown into it (essentially the bonfire) because it simply disappeared. Much like how all the city and bond money has disappeared into all these community housing boards just lining a few peoples' pockets. And much like LIFT is doing, lining the pockets of the few sorority sistas.
Interesting article from Wilmington.
"N.C. teachers see legislative changes as harmful, survey finds" at
http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20131125/ARTICLES/131129721/
Amazing to read so many comments signed "ANONYMOUS" or with pseudonisms. Legislators, restore the compensation scale you rescinded. Yes, pay for performance but reward the dedication of our educators.
We post anonymously so we won't be personally embarrassed by writing things like "pseudonisms".
Get used to pseudonyms.
They are an important part of US History as well.
Ever heard of Publius and the Federalist Papers?
Just IN
Teachers leaving CMeS in DROVES.
Will the last truly qualified teacher please turn out the lights before you leave.
As soon as minimum wage is raised most 1-5 teachers WILL have less in salary and benefits than Burger King workers. Boy, I bet that CMS teacher that turned down the BK job is really kicking himself in the rear or at least his wife.
Don't hold your breath waiting for those big minimum wage raises.
Not gonna happen.
Too many people are still unemployed.
Teachers are being told over and over again that their job is not to teach, but to guide students to learning on their own. The students can use tech devices to get all their information now. In these days when virtual learning is being force-fed to and by public schools, the classroom teacher is being increasingly devalued. The concept being pushed upon us is not of a teacher teaching, but one of who babysits while the thoroughly engaged students magically learn on their own with their technology. The problems will continue and our children will not truly be "learning". Wake up Educrats and parents.
That's because Bill Gates wants to replace teachers with Microsoft Certified instructors.
Using Khan Academy online tutorials, of course.
And then outsourcing the lot to India once they're all online and teaching to the proper metrics and rubrics.
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