NC Student Tax: $137,000 per classroom

Yesterday I watched my students cross the stage to receive their diplomas and listened to speeches recognizing the unique challenges they faced during the pandemic. I couldn’t help but think about a less unique but deeper and more lingering crisis faced by previous classes and set to continue unless more NC residents recognize the problem and take action together.

The Class of 2023 was shortchanged $6,855 after the NC General Assembly slow walked restoration of per pupil expenditure to pre-Great Recession levels while slashing corporate income taxes and bragging about budget “surpluses” built on the backpacks of NC students.

This money was never extra. It was necessary support denied to our youngest residents.

Assuming a 20:1 student to teacher ratio, that’s $137,000 per CLASSROOM over the last 12 years.

What more would your local school have if the General Assembly prioritized promptly restoring per pupil expenditure power instead of cutting corporate taxes?

Here are some items that come to mind:

• Recruit and retain highly qualified teachers
• Smaller class sizes
• Reliable bus service
• Clean, well-maintained buildings
• Brick & mortar classrooms instead of trailers
• Personalized learning with teaching assistants instead of software

Source: NC DPI Statistical Profile Table 24 adjusted to August 2022 dollars

The illustration above also shows the tide is going out again. Not because of an economic recession felt across the world as prompted before, but because NCGA “leaders” don’t feel like supporting public education. They’re less abashed now about confirming what public education advocates have known to be true based on actions this past decade.

Instead of making up for lost time, the NC General Assembly is set to drastically increase funding for private school vouchers.

They’re also preparing to allow wealthy families already sending their kids to private school to qualify for thousands of dollars in vouchers as well.

If this goes through, watch them misrepresent the additional outgoing dollars as representative of “additional demand” to leave public schools using vouchers when even DPI admits much of the additional funding will go to families already paying to send their kids to private school.

For all the talk of “school choice,” it’s clear that NCGA “leaders” are uninterested in supporting the choice of the 80% of North Carolina’s families who choose public schools for their children.

Despite the NCGA’s constitutional obligation to finance a “sound, basic education” via public schools, they’d rather give the $137,000 they owe your kid’s classroom to a private school.

Before the budget ink is dry, let your NC House & NC Senate representatives know what you think. You can find their contact information here: https://www.ncleg.gov/FindYourLegislators