Full interview: NC schools chief discusses pandemic, reflects on tenure, political future

Mark Johnson is closing out his term as the state's

top educator the outgoing state superintendent joining me now to

talk about the state of schools in North Carolina as

he prepares to hand off the baton to the newly

elected superintendent Catherine Truitt the fellow Republican superintendent

Thanks for talking with us

Thank you for having may looking back over the past

nine months in particular

Then we'll look at the last four years

But in those nine months what might you have done

differently Well we can always look back with hindsight and

ironically 2020 vision

But I'm very proud of my team

I'm very proud of the local leaders who have done

so much for students

I'm very proud that we pushed for in the summer

and all virtual option for students and the governor did

end up adopting that

So we gave that option for all students to be

virtual if they want to be

What I would have liked to have seen

I was vocal about this over the summer

I would have liked to have seen any student and

family who were comfortable going back to school

I would have liked to have seen them all have

the opportunity to go back to school

My daughter is in her second grade classroom right now

at school

She's wearing a mask she's saying staying socially distant but

it's the right thing for her

She needs to be in that classroom

Are you comfortable with more students returning in January in

light of the surge we're seeing now Yes because the

health data shows that sending kids to school and following

these proper protocols that we have been talking about since

the beginning of this pandemic we're not spreading cove it

through those students and the learning loss is just going

to be very worrisome

We're already starting to see signs of it

I'm very concerned for not just our state and nation

but for our youngest students who if we don't do

something very quickly for them they may go down in

history

As the Covic generation we've got to make sure that

we take the right steps and the most important people

in that decision are gonna be parents

I implore all parents if you are concerned that your

student is slipping and you see it really think hard

about what you want for your student next year

It might be worthwhile to have your student repeat some

of the same materials

And that is why we're pushing for more personalized learning

that will allow us to meet students where they are

and help them get back at their own pace

Mark I presume you have talked and spoken with Catherine

True it

What should she be focused on now and then Beyond

the pandemic right now is exactly what we just talked

about and that's the learning loss

I'm very concerned that it's a tsunami that is waiting

out and we see it

We see it out in the distance

We know it's coming and when it hits it's going

to affect especially our most vulnerable Children

So I'm very excited to hand this off to Catherine

Truitt another Republican

She is also a firm believer in the power of

personalized learning

I would encourage her to keep up the progress we've

made with personalized learning meet students at their ability help

them learn at their own pace

It's very exciting on then going forward beyond the pandemic

Uh it's been a fight these last four years

Everyone knows that I've been in a fight

Uh but that fight resulted in hiring some great people

for the Department of Public Instruction

I would encourage her thio keep those people on her

team what she's already said she's doing on

Listen to them

They're truly in it for the right reasons

They're here to help students and educators on I'm excited

that even though I won't be in the department public

instruction my leadership team still will be

Let's talk a little bit about that fight if we

can

The past four years when you came into office you

were up against quite honestly a long entrenched Democratic regime

running the Department of Public Instruction

From Day one folks were against you

How much did that impact the relationship between D

P I and the Board of Education It drove the

entire relationship

You have to remember I won in 2016 before I

even took the oath of office in January of 2017

State board was already suing me to stop me from

making the changes

I said I would do a state superintendent uh reducing

testing getting more money out of Raleigh into classrooms

All these things I had to fight for and I

was not going to just go along to get along

and you saw that play out over the last four

years

It was a strange relationship

I did go to court with the state board suing

me

We prevailed in that lawsuit and many of those board

members quit after they quit

We got new board members who were more willing toe

work together and we've done a lot of good things

But it is true that even with this Democrat controlled

state board there 95% of the items we can agree

on its those 5% that we disagree on that definitely

get the most headlines mark very quickly

What was the best thing about the job for you

in these four years traveling the state and getting out

of Raleigh And instead of saying you know I'm from

the government I'm here to help saying I'm the state

superintendent

I work in Raleigh but I'm here to listen and

taking those concerns back from the classroom and actually being

able to implement policies and changes that really did help

the state of education in North Carolina

Before cove it we were turning around negative trends

We had less students dropping out

We had less teachers leaving the profession

We've been testing less and less switching to personalized learning

And now with the federal funds that came with co

vid and so many students having their own devices

Because of that it's a silver lining on this terrible

pandemic that will be able to push that even mawr

into the future

Mr

Superintendent you're a young man

You know what it feels like to run and when

you also know what it feels like to run and

not when are we going to see you on the

battle again Soon

I'm very excited about my next steps

I'll be going back into the private sector toe work

with some startups

Very exciting work to actually help improve government from the

outside

Uh but I'd be lying if I say that there

is probably no chance that you'll see me in 2024

Uh there's definitely a chance You'll see my name on

the ballot

2024

Uh if you'd like to announce now we'll give you

a platform to give us an idea of which office

No no no idea

in the office yet but I I definitely I'm a

fan of the executive branch because that's where you can

get in roll up your sleeves and you see the

most change the fastest

So 2024 might have my name on the ballot

Well that does narrow it from the judicial and the

legislative

We'll focus on the executive

North Carolina's outgoing state superintendent of public instruction Mark Johnson

Thank you for your time today

Thank you for your four years of service

Best to you and your family in these holidays and

beyond

Thank you David

Happy holidays and Merry Christmas

Thanks