SEN. GLADYS ROBINSON: Stop 'nonsense and lies.' Enable teachers to teach 'so our children will do better'

As I saw this bill come and I've seen so many others, the question in my mind, having been here -- not as long as you Sen. (Phil) Berger and Sen. (Dan) Blue but longer than a lot of the others.

What in the world we're doing down here? What are we here for? What is our job?

And as I see the bills come and go, it resonates again: What is the job of this Legislature?

And I'm an educator -- different from what I said when I saw the lieutenant governor in the black caucus. And I asked him about his history and where he got his education and all, experience in the classroom.

I've been in the classroom -- probably 50 something years as a parent and then I taught at the university level. I've been on the (University of North Carolina) Board of Governors.

I make sure that I understand. I was on the first Achievement Gap Commission when Senator (Bill) Martin was here because kids who did not have opportunities in this state were being left behind.

So I try to stay up, not on everything like all of you, but on some things. And education is. My concept is that when we come here, we come here, to enact legislation to make life better for everybody. And a lot of that goes with funding it. But that we have experts in this state in every area. North Carolina is a great state -- experts in every area who can inform us on the other topics.

And so my mind goes back to: ‘What you do is so loud I can't hear what you say.’ Because what we do is tell everybody else how to run things.

We tell teachers -- we have been telling teachers for the last few years:

And we say it because we don't fund it. We say to the very Children that some of you are talking about.

That little black boy what? Don't teach him that he is better or whatever. He has the right to be educated too.

And if you don't want to teach anti-racism, what are we teaching? We ought to be teaching anti-racism. Because the concept is that you are no better than me. And our Children have to learn that because we missed up. We've screwed this place up, to make little children who see the hearts of teachers who care about them rather than their skin color. They see teachers who care about them.

These teachers aren't indoctrinating them. That's a bunch of political lies. Even the News & Observer and The Charlotte Observer says there is no fact to what the lieutenant governor says. He can't document it. But can't see how you treat them. They say that these teachers care.

Oftentimes they come from homes, that they don't have time to get the food or the health care or whatever. Our responsibility isn't to replace that teacher is to give them the resources. One teacher said: “Senator Robinson, there are roaches in that building.”

These children don't have healthcare. Yet in this budget you refused to fund what Leandro demands. You refuse to give health professionals, counselors, nurses. Give the resource, build the buildings. All the kids don't go to air-conditioned buildings. Let's build the facilities, let's do what we're here to do.

To fund our schools and then allow the people who are trained and educate them. Now, I'm not a farmer so I wouldn't try to do your tilling out there. But we ought to allow them who are invested in education taught in our universities to educate the children based on pedagogy.

They're taught. Have any you ever taught a teacher? They’re taught pedagogy. They know what to do. If you want to go in as a parent, like I used to, and snoop around and see what they're teaching, going to do it. I used to do it all the time. I want to hear what they were teaching. Do it.  But allow them to do their jobs and support them.

Indoctrination is fake news. As a matter of fact, it's more than that. It's a bold-faced lie. There is no indoctrination. What we need to do is step in our land and let them go into their lane, let us fund this. We're waiting on a budget. We're waiting on a budget. We need school buildings.

You know, these teachers need resources. They are concerned about how we're going to get through this. COVID’s out here again.

Our job is to fund that. Our job is to put those things in place …

So, my point to you … My point is let’s pay attention to the real issues. I know some of you care. A lot of you care. You know, probably as much as I do. You don't think, I think you care.  But I do think some of you care.

But we need to focus in on what we're supposed to do? We've got a budget to pass. We need to make sure we give the resources here and stop doing bills that don't have substance. This doesn't have any substance. We're seeking a problem here.

Let's address the real issues. Let us enable our teachers to teach. Give them the support they need to make sure our L.E.A.s are doing what they should do. That's where we put policy. Make sure they're doing what they should do. And let's leave the rest of this nonsense alone.

Little children grow up believing what you tell them. And we're the ones who are perpetuating the racist attitudes in scenes like this. It's not the little kids. It's not the teachers. It's adults. It is not the kids.  It's not the teacher, it's adults.  So, we need to allow them to teach so that our children will do better than we have done.