Republicans are gaslighting North Carolina about the threat to public schools | Opinion

It’s bad enough that Republican state lawmakers are undermining traditional public schools, but it’s made worse by their refusal to admit it.

If they were honest, they would say what they really think. They see public schools as “government schools” run by insular administrators and teachers who “indoctrinate” children with progressive views that disrespect Christian family values. They think it’s time to break that monopoly and leave public schools as the option of last resort for the poor and children with mental or physical disabilities.

But they don’t say that. They say they support public schools, but this being America, land of the free, parents should have a choice and, since parents pay taxes, tax dollars should pay for that choice. Indeed, they say, tax dollars should pay tuition for children already enrolled in private schools even if the parents can readily afford the cost.

This is a radical change that undermines a system of public education that has provided opportunity to the nation’s children of all ages and backgrounds.. Yet when Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper says that the Republicans’ universal voucher plan will “choke the life out of public education,” Republicans go into full gaslight mode.

“Who, us? We support public schools. The legislature we control is paying more per pupil than ever, even when adjusted for inflation. And, anyway, we’re doing what polls say most people want – school choice.”

But it’s not how much the Republican-controlled legislature is spending on schools; it’s whether it’s spending enough.

Republican lawmakers have increased school funding, but they’re still starving the schools. And with vouchers they’ll effectively take money from public schools.

In a statement, Cooper’s spokesman Jordan Monaghan said the legislature’s “abysmal lack of investment” in public schools shows most clearly in teacher salaries: “Over the past 20 years, the state’s average teacher salary has declined by nearly 18% when adjusted for inflation. If the General Assembly had made the necessary investments to keep pace over the past two decades, average teacher salary would be more than $70,400 today instead of just over $57,000.”

An exhaustive analysis as part of the Leandro school funding case found that the state needed to spend $8 billion more over eight years to provide all North Carolina students with what the state constitution promises – a sound basic education. Republican lawmakers have balked at paying that amount despite a court order to do so. Now they want to step up spending on private school vouchers to nearly a half-billion dollars by 2031. That will enable students – and the state funding that goes with them – to leave public schools.

Nationally, North Carolina ranks near the bottom in per-pupil spending and teacher salaries. In terms of effort – the amount spent on public schools as a percent of the state GDP – North Carolina ranks dead last, according to the Education Law Center. Danielle Farrie, the center’s research director, told me, “Instead of diverting money to costly voucher schemes, North Carolina needs to step up its last-in-the-nation effort and fund its public schools at the levels that students both need and deserve.”

As for the claims that universal vouchers are what the public wants, the evidence is muddled. As recently as 2019, one-third of the money set aside for vouchers for low-income families went unclaimed. That prompted the legislature to increase the income threshold to attract more takers. Now, under the proposed change, even millionaires would qualify.

Sure, people support the idea of parents having a choice about where their kids go to school, but if you asked about diverting public school funds to pay for private and religious schools where the state would have no way to account for the quality of the instruction, support would drop sharply.

Christopher Lubienski, a professor of education policy at Indiana University, noted in a recent op-ed column that since 1990, states have adopted 76 voucher or voucher-like programs and 45 charter school programs, but of those 121 programs, only two were approved by voters.

Lubienski wrote: “Rather than put the question of whether to use public money for private schools before voters, advocates for choice almost always want state legislatures to make the decision instead. That may be because a careful look at the efforts suggests that if it were up to voters, school choice proposals would rarely succeed.”

No, Gov. Cooper is not imagining the threat. Republican lawmakers really are trying to turn out the lights in public schools by turning up the gaslighting in public debate.

This story was originally published June 6, 2023 at 4:30 AM.