We can’t defund our way to educational equity

So, we are finally here. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools and the Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners are entering mediation to address the latest chapter in a multi-decade battle over funding.

CMS lobbying for money and the county telling it to dance harder while coming in under the request is as predictable as a WWE match. Think Charlotte City Council and CMPD “take whatever you like” budget process on opposite day. As CMS teacher Justin Parmenter highlighted in a blog post last week, commissioners Vilma Leake and George Dunlap pushed for funding when they were on the dance floor as Board of Education members, but now have pivoted for austerity as commissioners who call the dance. Then, Dr. James Pughsley was CMS superintendent and Judge Howard Manning encouraged greater funding in under-resourced schools to address “academic genocide.” This was shortly before a recession and a Republican state legislative takeover that poured accelerant on an already existing resegregation of kids, opportunities, and resources while sending North Carolina teachers across the border to more appropriately funded South Carolina.

Let me be clear. CMS has tremendous issues with equity. It’s one of the reasons I pushed for a community-based committee a couple of years ago. High discretionary suspensions for Black students and disproportionately low offerings and enrollment in high-level classes for Black and brown students were and remain unacceptable.

CMS has a strategic plan to address it. However, like school funding, it’s insufficient. Educators I have talked with haven’t expressed buy in that the plan is the best way forward to address achievement and opportunity gaps that were acknowledged in CMS’ Breaking the Link Report. CMS needs to step up not only on its plan, but on its partnering with educators and its equity committee. Recommendations need to be brought forth and implemented with urgency and intentionality, and CMS also needs to be on a recurring tour, talking with and listening to its constituents, especially the communities most directly impacted by inequities. Constituents who feel their representatives aren’t doing so need to be lining up succession plans.

That said, further starving malnourished schools and saying “run faster” is gaslighting, whether implemented by Republicans in the North Carolina General Assembly or the Default, excuse me, Democratic party in Mecklenburg County. Years ago, the state dishonestly told us assistant teachers weren’t necessary. Now, Mecklenburg County’s budget is saying the same about assistant principals.

Finally, can someone tell me what suddenly makes Mecklenburg County a worthy arbiter of equity? A county that was 99th out of 100 counties in the Chetty economic mobility study, with only Baltimore County being worse? A county where parks ranked 95th out of 100 large cities, worst in N.C., with the lowest rated being located alongside our most challenged schools? A county that was N.C.’s epicenter of the pandemic with racial disparities and now has predictable gaps in which regions are vaccinated? A county that passed off our mental health system and has perpetually underfunded social workers and counselors in schools while many of our Black citizens needing mental health care first get it in our … jail? A county that chastised CMS into getting non-instructional staff up to $15/hour while outsourcing their staff to a contracting agency paying less with less benefits? A county that annually mentions eradicating homelessness while repeatedly having thousands of CMS students without housing?

“Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.” In a state already waging war on public education, we don’t need local rock throwing. We need collaborative leadership from all bodies of government, our business, faith, and philanthropic communities so we collectively can stop failing our kids.

This story was originally published June 7, 2021 at 12:00 AM with the headline "We can’t defund our way to educational equity."