Opinion

Editorial: Truitt should lead push to adopt Leandro quality education action plan

Tuesday, May 18, 2021 -- State Superintendent of Public Instruction Catherine Truitt needs to make it her mission to demand Gov. Roy Cooper champion with her, and push the General Assembly to adopt and fully fund the nonpartisan, consensus comprehensive remedial action plan that will fulfill our State Constitution's mandate to provide a quality education to every child.

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Superintendent of Public Instruction Catherine Truitt
CBC Editorial: Tuesday, May 18, 2021; Editorial #8670
The following is the opinion of Capitol Broadcasting Company.

North Carolina’s Superintendent of Public Instruction says she wants to “keep this about students instead of politics.”

Catherine Truitt has the opportunity to make good on that in a big way. Further, she can put herself on the path to a legacy as one of the state’s most significant advocates for quality public education.

She needs to set aside her partisan fealty to the current legislative leadership. She needs to make it her mission to demand Gov. Roy Cooper champion with her, and push the General Assembly to adopt and fully fund the nonpartisan, consensus comprehensive remedial action plan that will fulfill our State Constitution’s mandate to provide a quality education to every child.

Adversaries -- a coalition of students, parents and local school boards plaintiffs on one side; North Carolina state government and the State Board of Education defendants on the other -- have been challenging each other for more than a quarter of a century over how to meet that mandate.

Under the guidance of Superior Court Judge Howard Manning and now Judge David Lee (both Republicans like Truitt by the way), those diverse parties have come together and agreed on a workable nonpartisan, non-ideological program in the landmark Leandro state Supreme Court decision. The court has endorsed the plan to lift education for every child – whether they attend a public school in an inner-city community; a rural farming area or suburban neighborhood.
“This is truly the first step in a comprehensive, structured approach to have the kind of quality education available for students who are so much in need of receiving a sound basic education,” Lee said of the plan.

Truitt, by making it her mission to get the consensus eight-year action plan adopted, will give the state a workable roadmap to improve teaching, classroom resources, school facilities and opportunities throughout the state.

She’d be leading the charge for a common-sense program, as outlined by Judge Lee, to:

  • Provide a system of teacher development and recruitment to ensure each classroom is staffed with a high-quality teacher who is offered competitive pay;
  • Provide a system of school administrator development and recruitment so each school is led by a high-quality principal offered competitive pay;
  • Establish system to finance public education to provide adequate, equitable and predictable funding to school districts that addresses the needs of all North Carolina schools and students -- especially at-risk students;
  • Create an assessment and accountability system to reliably measure student performance and provide that accountability;
  • Assist and turnaround low-performing schools and districts;
  • Provide access to high-quality prekindergarten and other early childhood learning opportunities so ALL students at-risk of educational failure enter kindergarten on track for school success;
  • Align high school to postsecondary and career expectations and workforce learning opportunities so students are prepared to succeed in a career and contribute as citizens.

There is a plan. Truitt needs to advocate for it. She can transform the Leandro Plan into the Truitt plan. Through her position as the state’s public education leader, she can work to get her plan adopted and be positioned to make sure the plan is followed.

Legislative leaders, never reserved about spending millions in state funds on business tax cuts, have already signaled their trepidation at spending for a program that assures quality education statewide. They have yet to offer their own up a comprehensive plan to bring the state’s education system into compliance with the demands of the Constitution, but rather have passed a patch-work series of education bills. Further, they’ve ridiculed the parties involved in developing the court-developed remediation effort.

“The legislative process stands in stark contrast to a select group of lawyers and out-of-state consultants meeting by themselves to propose suggestions to an appointed trial judge,” state Senate leader Phil Berger’s spokesman Pat Ryan said a couple of months ago.

Truitt, as much as any state leader, is at a crucial crossroad. Will she choose the broad avenue to a legacy elevating public education everywhere in the state? Or will she pick the narrow path of partisan political self-interest?

There will only be winners – including herself – if she stands up for a quality education for every North Carolina child.

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