Advocates push for full funding of Leandro plan

and the north Carolina School of Science and Math

In 2011 republicans began to dismantle the legacy of education

by privatizing corporate tax over sustainable funding for our north

Carolina public education system

And now Under public Republican leadership in the general assembly

North Carolina is 39 in per pupil spending which is

where we were

Just before governor terry Sanford enacted the quality education program

We have an average teacher salary that is $9,000 less

than the national average and we have $13 billion dollars

in outstanding public school construction needs

All of this has culminated with the leandro case and

the court ruling that the state of north Carolina has

not lived up to its constitutional obligation to provide a

sound basic education for every child in our state

The north Carolina General Assembly has failed our Children

We knew this decision was coming from Judge me

North Carolina is in a strong financial position however to

meet these obligations and perhaps to do even more to

provide funding that will ensure sound basic education for every

child especially those that are left behind low income and

minority Children this case and the actions that the court

will take this week are about more than our constitutional

obligations

It is a moral obligation

Is it okay to deny equitable education to our Children

to deny funding for public schools

Republican legislators may say that they do not have to

fund the andro but they should want to fund it

because it is the right thing to do

It is my pleasure now to introduce my colleague in

the Senate and the Senate Democratic whip Cemetery J told

Jerry of Senate District 15

Thank you

Uh Senator Robinson and um thank you for what you

do for the state of north Carolina and for public

education

Um good morning everyone

Um is Senator Robinson mentioned my name is jay chowdhury

I serve as the Senate Democratic whip and I just

wanted to make a few comments with regard to the

leandro decision that Senator Robinson touched upon

Um in a little more than 24 hours

Judge David Lee will hold a hearing tomorrow afternoon to

review the submissions from the parties about how to make

sure that each and every child in our state receives

a sound basic education and against the backdrop of Republican

rhetoric about doing more for public schools and our teachers

The reality remains that republican leadership has thumbed its nose

at the court and that the judiciary Senator Berger has

argued that Judge Lee's motion is a violation of separation

of powers but the failure to comply with Judge Lee's

order is a real constitutional violation that separates our school

Children from the real chance to achieve the american dream

Senator Berger has said that Judge lee is unhinged but

our state constitution hinges on an independent judiciary that has

a duty to determine whether or not our executive or

legislative branch runs a foul of the state constitution

We continue to deny and delay our school Children the

chance to receive a sound basic education a missed opportunity

that's been going on now for almost two decades and

has denied a generation of our school Children

The chance that chance already

Uh the way we talk about public education and how

we talk about funding public education may very well change

after tomorrow afternoon and it will shed light that the

state is sitting on $8.6 billion $1.7 billion dollars required

to meet the first two years of the comprehensive plan

That will put art school Children first

I'll close by saying this that in a recent United

States Supreme Court decision the court wrote that America's public

schools are the Nurseries of Democracy and if that's the

case as a state we haven't even really watered or

nurtured the very plants were growing

Our Children are school teachers in our public education system

And with that I will now turn it over to

introduce Christo Salazar who was the coalition head for every

child north Carolina to discuss a report that they Charlene

really issued called True Report

Thank you

Hello everyone

My name is Crystal Salazar and I am a coalition

coordinator here every child and see

I am also a recent graduate from the King County

Public School Systems

Um I come from a low income and rural community

and come coming from mexican documented parents

I grew up as an english learner speaking spanish in

my household and not you know being able to communicate

as well at school when I started feeling unseen and

her due to those language barriers and when I received

the opportunity to learn the language I fall behind uh

due to being pulled out of other subject classes and

I can never really say that I saw myself represented

in any of the three public schools that I have

attended or valued as a student due to the lack

of counselors and even diverse staff

It wasn't until high school that I realized that I

was going to need to step up my game and

figure things out for myself to have a future after

graduating

And even though I haven't been able to return to

school and reach higher ed it's something that I'm still

aiming towards but I have been privileged to go straight

into the workforce through my experience working with community like

programs like windows and now I have the opportunity to

advocate for other students like me and even those who

might have had it worse through my work with the

coalition the state's constitution guaranteed that all north Carolina Children

have access to a sound basic education despite having billions

of dollars in allocated revenue and being under court order

the General Assembly refuses to commit the funding to successfully

implement the landfill plan and instead they are prioritizing tax

cuts over providing students with public schools that make constitutional

standards

The Landau Plan provides a detailed roadmap ensuring that every

child has access to the sound basic education by 2028

and it eliminates inequity and opportunities uh that mm eliminating

the inequity and funding deficiencies that prevent students from getting

services and opportunities that owed addressing the critical needs of

north Carolina's public school system and prioritizing investment and policy

change

These changes look like qualified and diverse teachers and principals

in every school who are supported with training and professional

development

It looks like a school funding system that's adequate and

equitable with schools with the greatest need

Receiving extra support reducing schools narrow focus on standardized testing

by lowering steaks and overhauling discriminatory accountability practices investing in

high quality education programs such as early intervention prekindergarten and

affordable daycare strengthening pathways from high school to college

Thanks very much by providing more relevant experience and training

begins to address staffing shortages particularly for teachers nurses counselors

therapists and Liberians and addresses the repairs at these statewide

schools need

So nevertheless the Landau plan would move us closer to

reaching national average standards and put the state on a

path towards realizing an equitable high quality statewide education system

Thank you

And now I'm honored to introduce to you

Senator Crawford thank you so much

Good morning everyone

I'm pleased to be here with all of you When

I was 11 years old

My family made the decision like so many other families

to relocate to North Carolina

My parents wanted a better future for me and my

older brother a future that included access to good jobs

and a great public school education and that's exactly what

happened

I'm the product of public education in north Carolina from

the time we moved to Eastern Wake County through college

But fast forward to today

And as you've heard for decades our legislative leaders have

shirked their responsibility their constitutional responsibility to provide a sound

basic education to every child in our state

The true report that we're highlighting today emphasizes what I

as a parent of school aged Children know firsthand that

our state is failing our Children because they have not

invested adequate resources in education

Just recently we have seen how the shortage and bus

drivers is impacting the lives of students and families and

how we must make those investments and we know we

have a severe teacher shortage and this report emphasizes how

teachers are having to cover classes when they're when they're

missing colleagues and how in some cases there's only one

assistant for five classrooms and we know our school buildings

across the state are in need of repair proper ventilation

system especially in the midst of a pandemic adequate space

and more

Our students across the state deserve the very best and

if our schools are busy combating mold making do with

inadequate space leaking roofs and more as the true report

indicates we aren't adequately meeting our Children's educational needs

Education is where we deliver on the promise of equality

as a nation and the state and the leandro plan

gives us a solid roadmap so that every child has

access to the education they not only need but deserve

It is time that we meet this obligation not just

because it is constitutionally required because our future and the

future of our Children quite literally depends on it

And now it is my pleasure to introduce brian profit

the vice president for the north Carolina Association of Educators

Uh thank you

Representative Crawford uh as uh Senator Crawford said my name

is brian profit

I'm an 11 year veteran high school history teacher currently

serving as the vice president of the north Carolina Association

of Educators

And since we're in the season for giving thanks

I'd like to start my remarks with some gratitude since

long before dark this morning educators have been waking up

all over the state to show up for the young

people of our communities

We've been warming up busses and navigating dark dark roads

We've been serving breakfast to kids who didn't get it

at home

We've been preparing our rooms and our lesson plans for

their energetic arrival greeting our kids with smiles and hugs

and high fives as they walk through our doors from

there we've tended to their runny noses even though it's

a risk to our own families

We've soothed their anxieties bandaged their wounds and done our

best to fortify them to be their best selves in

a really challenging world around them

We've helped them learn how to read Play the trombone

and solve complicated physics equations and it's 9:15 and we've

already done all those things

We do this from Murphy DiMaggio and every corner of

our state for every child white black and brown native

and immigrant irrespective of how much money their families have

We do this because we believe in them and the

future that they can create

We do this because we love them

And even though I am one of those people I

feel the need to offer thanks because it is not

something our educators are feeling right now are jobs have

always been the most difficult on the planet

This last decade however has been brutal

And the impact of underfunding and the privatization agenda of

certain politicians in our state legislature has finally hit a

tipping point educators who haven't already walked away are seriously

considering it

Now listen to this story from a Currituck county teacher

that we received through the true portal

As an educator I have experienced many shortages in funding

Through my throughout my years Most recently I've been moved

to a modular classroom

I have had to fund furniture for my classroom

Yes that's right furniture

My modular classroom came with no bullets and boards no

whiteboards and no cabinet or shelving storage

I brought the old furniture from my old classroom items

for centers

However I lost nine cabinets and three large shelving units

That is not all

I am still without a working filing cabinet

I have 22 students in a capped 21 student classroom

22 students in a cap 21 classroom

I have a to only some of the day

Currently our school is going through a remodel and after

a year of eating in my classroom through covid we

are eating breakfast we're eating breakfast and lunch in our

classrooms again

So not only did I get my bachelor's degree to

be a teacher I am also a custodian sweeping floors

color uh sanitizing tables and cleaning up spills and messes

I also must clean my toilet white my sink and

clean my mirrors

Yeah

This is a story from an educator on the front

line right now that educator isn't feeling thanked or supported

and my guess is she is waking up every day

in the dark and wrestling with a devastating choice

Leave the profession and the students that she loves to

try to stay afloat emotionally and financially or stick with

her kids at an incalculable cost to her and her

family

That is not a choice our educators should have to

make

And I know from listening to stories every day that

this frustration is fairly universal across the state right now

and it doesn't have to be debate

Legislature has billions in reserves and the same politicians who

don't want to fund our schools are also proposing even

more tax cuts for the wealthiest north Carolinians instead of

prioritizing the bank accounts of the wealthy the leadership of

the General Assembly should and can from the future of

our state Daniel bell Leander decision mandated that equitable funding

when I was in high school And I am here

at 42 years old halfway through my career speaking at

a press conference to demand that we finally take action

It's time to show up for our kids the way

that educators do every single day

Our kids wealthy middle class and poor that brown and

white immigrant and native are our future

We owe them and ourselves the very best

Our educators have been with them since before dark this

morning doing our part and I'm grateful to every last

one of them

I look forward to the day when I can thank

the leadership of the General Assembly for their gratitude and

full funding

Our kids cannot wait

Y'all fully fund Leandro and fund our future is now

Okay so I think that wraps up the comments from

our presenters and we will now open up for any

questions

And um if you have any questions that you could

just identify yourself in direct and see you like a

direct question too

J I see a hand up

Did you see that I did not Children

Let's see the body Leslie is everybody

I don't know if I can everybody a mute themselves

or if you can pose the question maybe in the

chat

Hey this is Michael Highland

I just got a muted

Are you able to hear me Yes we can hear

you Michael um at a couple of questions

So we've seen in some other states where they've had

cases like this play out that even after there was

some sort of order from a judge it took years

for the legislature to comply with those orders and something

of Washington

There was three years they were fined before they came

up with the money to comply with that order

Would the faster way to do this be to just

simply pass a budget And how close are you all

to getting some kind of agreement Sarah Robinson do you

want to answer that question first Well you can go

ahead but my my my position would be that the

current budget that we've seen thus far does not include

the funding that Judge Lee is requiring

It does not include the 690 million In new funding

and uh 1.7 billion for next year

So at this point we are not comfortable with the

funding in the current budget

Now we have not seen the most recent maybe jay

has but I'm sure the governor is pressing on the

legislature to include the funding that the judges requiring and

we rarely need it for our Children in in education

Michael I would just simply add I think Senator Robinson

has covered the point

I think to your point Yes

I mean the easiest way to address the issue with

regard to uh making sure that our Children have a

sound basic education is too make a commitment and fully

uh meet the court's requirement of $1.7 million

Uh there there is a real difference in between the

Republican budget and Governor Cooper's budget on on that matter

And I think if you look at Governor Cooper's in

the federal budget um it does it does meet the

land rover um funding requirement and other folks could just

beach keep on keep on mute when we're getting questions

from reporters are greatly appreciated

We're getting some feedback

I see a hand from Laura Leslie J CTV News

and Laura Leslie ever whoever wants to go first

Hey this is Laura Leslie with Wrl can you hear

me okay We can

Great thank you

Um so I don't know if you've had a chance

yet to look at the state's response that we got

this morning from Attorney General josh Stein

Um have you had a chance to look at an

episode Do you have a response to that Uh Well

let's see

I have not

I saw the plaintiff's response but I have not seen

the defendant's response which I think was you today

Right That's correct

Yeah maybe you can update us Laura

I mean I'm happy if you're looking for comment

I mean I'm I'm happy to look at the spots

and follow up with you

That would be perfect

Thank you

Let's see

Do we um is there tv news Is that someone

who the issue on a mute

wow

Um Leslie is there any other questions just trying to

check here in the chat if you want to I

don't have any more questions um in the chat or

otherwise

Uh but we'll be sending out some documents here after

um further questions from reporters

Anyone

All right

If not I I appreciate your time and we'll be

sending out some documents and uh this morning to you

and we'll certainly follow up with a response for laura's

question

Well thank you folks for coming

We appreciate your time

Have a great morning

Thank you

Nice lot

Yeah