Public schools advocates call on N.C. schools chief for more support

About 50 teachers, parents and retired educators gathered in Raleigh Wednesday to urge state Superintendent of Public Instruction Catherine Truitt to push for more public school funding in North Carolina and fight against private school vouchers.

The event came in the wake of a state legislative session that included a large expansion of the state’s voucher program, new limits on the materials and topics teachers can address in their classrooms, and new complaint procedures for parents who believe their children are being indoctrinated by educators.

Republican supporters of the legislative initiatives say they’re needed because, they say, parents are being left out of their children’s education, teachers are addressing inappropriate topics in classrooms, and students should have the right to take their state education funding with them if they want to change schools.

But Public Schools Strong is pushing back. The group was formed just a few months ago, but organizers say they’ve already grown to more than 500 members in 60 counties across the state. Organizers say Republicans’ arguments don’t represent the opinions of most people in the state.

After a small rally in Freedom Park, close to DPI, they marched with signs around the legislative building to Halifax Mall, where a small group continued into the Education Building to deliver the results of their unscientific survey on education funding to Truitt.

“The survey says that the majority of North Carolinians, whether parents or community members, support our public schools, and want to see full funding for our public schools, as well as instruction that is truthful and accurate,” Joanna Pendleton, president of the Guilford County Association of Educators and a member of Public Schools Strong, told WRAL News. “And we need our state legislature to come through on that.”

She added: “Public money is getting siphoned off and sent to private schools, charter schools, just privatizers in general, who are not accountable in the same way that public schools are and who don't serve all students the way that public schools do,”

Voucher expansion

Earlier this year, state lawmakers passed a massive expansion of the state’s school voucher program, making the vouchers universally available to all North Carolina families with no income limit.

They also nearly doubled the funding for the voucher program, going from $133 million last year to $263.5 million this year. Next year, it will be $354.5 million. It would top $400 million the year after that and exceed $500 million a year by 2030, making it one of the largest line items in the state budget.

When a student leaves a public school for a private school, the public school loses the per-pupil funding for that student. A large influx of students into private schools would result in large budget cuts for public schools.

Private schools don’t have to adhere to the same standards as public schools in North Carolina. They can develop their own standards, use different national tests, teach religion classes or incorporate religious ideas into core curricula, such as teaching creationism instead of evolution in science class.

Private schools can also choose which students to admit. The vast majority of private schools receiving public funding from vouchers in North Carolina are religious schools, and many don’t admit openly LGBTQ+ students or students with LGBTQ+ parents. Many also don’t offer educational options for children with disabilities or provide the bus service or school meals that some low-income students need.

“We’ve done a lot of harm to public education in the past year,” said state Sen. Lisa Grafstein, D-Wake, who attended part of the Public Schools Strong rally. “It’s the [voucher] eligibility piece that is most significant, because it’s a misdirection of public dollars into private coffers.”

She added: “The voucher proponents talk about choice — we have choice in schools right now. We have all kinds of magnet programs. People can already send their kids to private schools. It’s just about who pays for it, and I don’t think the public should be paying for that.”

Superintendent Catherine Truitt didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the rally. She’s been a proponent of school choice.

Her spokeswoman Blair Rhoades said Truitt was out of state at an education conference and couldn’t meet with the group, but a legislative liaison greeted them and accepted the survey results on Truitt’s behalf.

Pendleton knows Truitt can’t undo what legislators did this year, but she’s hoping the superintendent will help them convince lawmakers to reconsider or repeal the planned expansions of vouchers in the coming years.

“We need Truitt and others to recognize the value in the public schools that are paid for by our tax dollars, and where the majority of our North Carolina students go to school,” Pendleton said.