Many people are genuinely concerned about the trends of increasing education budgets in NC, and the continuing decline of student performance. On February 21, 2011 a group of concerned citizens in coordination with the Carteret County Board of Education spoke out at a County Commissioner’s meeting in support of fully funding the education budget that had not been finalized at that time. Those speaking out for more funding were mainly from upper income families, and not representative of a majority of Carteret County citizens, especially those living on fixed incomes and facing increasing fuel prices, food prices, medical costs, property taxes, and the like. Maybe these well-off families can afford to pay more for education, and maybe they should. But many on a fixed income have already paid their dues.

I’m not suggesting that everyone who wants to see more funding provided to education fall into this elite group of speakers. On the contrary, some people I’ve talked to have purported to be conservatives who want to see fiscal responsibility in government, but claim to be willing to spend more on education for the children. Well, let me ask these so-called conservatives who want to see more education spending to save the children, where is your proof that increased spending will result in better education? More spending does not ensure a better product. There are many more factors to consider first.

“Let me be clear,” I agree with those who say there are great teachers in our school system, and that many work long hours, and some spend their own money for classroom materials. That aside however, it is clear that what has happened to education over the last 50 years has not contributed to better education. In the last 50 years, education funding has gone up dramatically; Curriculum has changed significantly (there are more choices and more fluff); Curriculum has become more centralized in Raleigh and in Washington; Class size has decreased; Teachers now make more money (above inflation) albeit not as much as they want; teachers now have aides; Most teachers take less work home now; Many teachers work fewer hours after school on such things as parent-teacher conferences, PTA, grading papers, etc; There are more school administrators; School administrators are paid more (above inflation); It’s more difficult to remove poor teachers; There are more “teacher meeting” days during the school year; There are more holidays; School buildings are bigger and better equipped; Schools have more computers and gadgets; the list goes on … With all these changes, why is it that the results are worse than 50 years ago? Why is it that universities are now forced to offer remedial courses to students who took advanced college preparatory courses in high school? Why is the drop-out rate so high? Why …

Recently, I attended a meeting organized by the Carteret County Concerned Citizen’s for Education (C4). There was outstanding attendance at the meeting, there were great speakers, and there was interesting dialog. However, it was clear during the proceedings and in off-line discussions that the focus of C4 is on “getting more money for education.” I was told that the members of C4 have decided “it is not their place to get involved with issues, such as those mentioned above, as those issues are the responsibility of the Board of Education and the Superintendent.” Consequently, all that is left for C4 to focus on is the school budget. I disagree with C4’s approach of focusing on the budget to the exclusion of other issues. I submit that the Board of Education and the Superintendent are part of the problem. I suggest that one cannot effectively determine the appropriate level of funding for the school system without addressing the other issues. If the curriculum is full of fluff, doesn’t that impact the budget? If there are a few substandard teachers and consequently their students may have to undergo remedial instruction, doesn’t that impact the budget? The bottom line is if C4 members, parents and taxpayers really want to improve education, then they need to consider the entire school system, not just the level of funding. They need to be asking “why is it that we keep spending more money each year, but the results seems to be going in the opposite direction?”