Source: WRAL
Gubernatorial candidates Josh Stein and Mark Robinson addressed educators and community leaders from across North Carolina at the Public School Forum of North Carolina’s annual Eggs & Issues Breakfast earlier this month.
In his remarks, Stein focused on the need, and the ability, for the state to increase funding to public schools, especially so teacher pay can be increased.
“We are 49th in the country in what we invest in K-12 as a share of our state’s economy. Forty-nine,” he said. The state is doing worse than many of its neighbors in teacher pay, as well, he said. “Those statistics are a disgrace.”
Stein also reiterated his opposition to Republican legislators’ plan to expand school vouchers, which critics argue are handouts to wealthy families who are already sending their children to private academies.
Robinson, on the other hand, emphasized that he wants to cut funding from public schools, though he did not specify what he would cut.
“We should honestly look at our budget, and whatever we can cut we should cut it and not move it to anywhere else but move it to teacher pay,” Robinson said.
Robinson’s vague remarks echo previous statements he’s made on school funding, including when he told the East Wake Republican Club in December that “cutting the fat” out of the education budget would be “essential,” but did not specify what he would cut. At that same meeting, he claimed, “school systems get better results on less money.”
Robinson did not address the voucher expansion at Eggs & Issues Breakfast, but has previously stated his support for the plan.
