Monday, November 15, 2010

Don't cut, but increase school funding, Justice Center argues

With a $3.6 billion budget shortfall facing the upcoming 2011 General Assembly, the worst-kept secret in Raleigh -- make that the Western Hemisphere -- is that the legislature will be making significant cuts. Republicans won both the House and Senate for the first time in more than a century in the Nov. 2 election, and they'll be looking at every part of the budget to make necessary cuts, they say.

But the N.C. Justice Center argues in a new report that not only should legislators not cut the public schools' budget, they ought to increase funding for schools. The center's Education & Law Project says in a news release that the state's education system is "one of the worst-funded in America" and that the state's school funding formula "is one of the most complex and least effective at aiding needy students." And the report says this state lags behind its immediate neighbors: South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee and Virginia.

To be found online at www.ncjustice.org, the report, "North Carolina's Public School Funding System: Underfunded, Unclear, and Unfair," argues that the state needs an increase in overall funding, says Matthew Ellinwood, a Justice Center policy analyst.

Specifically, the report says Census data show North Carolina to be "45th in the nation in per‐pupil spending and 43rd in the nation in per‐pupil expenditure as a share of personal income. North Carolina ranks behind other southern states including South Carolina, Virginia, Georgia and Kentucky. "

8 comments:

therestofthestory said...

What else would you expect form this group?

Did they offer any solutions? Of course not! Just print more money? Thankfully NC can not do this. Thankfully, the R's have control now and we will get some priorities for value based spending.

Anonymous said...

There is ZERO correlation between per-pupil spending and student performance. Many of the highest-performing states have among the lowest spending. Utah is DEAD LAST in per-pupil spending yet it's near the top of performance. New York has the highest spending and some of the country's worst schools.

Of course the Observer will never miss an opportunity to cut and paste from some lying liberal loser group without counterbalancing their lies with facts.

Anonymous said...

School funding should be cut 20%. Maybe then CMS and other districts will stop building schools that have TV studios, thousands of computers where kids will learn more video games, etc.

Marva Collins taught kids respect, discipline, English, etc for far less per student. But now parents complain if the administrators tell the boys to pull their pants up. The problems is mainly with the parents and people on the dole who don't want to work.

Anonymous said...

But we have the "EDUCATION LOTTERY"! The schools should be DROWNING in the profits from the lottery! EVERYONE WINS with the EDUCATION LOTTERY!

Anonymous said...

First, who is the Justice Center, how does it get funding, and who makes up its staff? Lets get clarity on the source first, please i.e. do they have an agenda or bias? Whenever I see these organizations with generic names, its usually to try to conceal an agenda...imo.

Anonymous said...

Disturbing data to read. However, if you increase the school budget, how do you make sure the money is for the students and not being spent on top administrators,consultants, and bodyguards?

Anonymous said...

Disturbing data to read. If the school budget is to be increased, how do you make sure it is spent in the classroom, and not on top administrators and consultants?

Anonymous said...

You have to be kidding me right? Throw more good money after bad?
This NC 'Justice Center' must be another one of the liberal 'think tanks' in Raleigh who have over spent for as long as they have been inexistence and that justifies their existence and their solution to everything is throwing more good money after bad to 'solve the problem'
This modus-operandus is exactly the reason NC has never made it out of the low 40 ranking spot for as long as I can remember.
Cut the budget. Free choice vouchers. Then maybe some teachers who want to improve the quality of education will be lured into NC. But to always do what you always done...don't ya always get what ya always got? Hello...anyone listening?