Source: The Pulse
Reports that North Carolina Superintendent Catherine Truitt has brought in Terry Stoops as an advisor have sparked questions about the controversial new hire – with local educators condemning the decision to hire a well-known right-winger.
A post from the education commentary website called ‘Caffeinated Rage,’ authored by Stu Egan, a veteran Forsyth County public school teacher, calls out the political play of Truitt hiring a proponent of anti-public education, stating:
“(Stoops) He’s heading over to keep expanding the “establishment” that his current and probably “still will be” boss has been building for years.
All of the reforms that have negatively impacted public education in NC over the last 10+ years have had the fingerprints of one man and his cronies on them: Art Pope. Either directly or indirectly, he has led the fight to privatize public education in NC.
Well over two-thirds of the campaign contributions reported for the second quarter of 2020 for Truitt’s campaign for State Superintendent came from donors whose actions and interests run totally antithetical to supporting public schools. Including Art Pope.”
During his time at the John Locke Foundation, Stoops took steps to strip away resources from public education while promoting charter schools – despite concerns of racial segregation and inequities that have historically riddled charter schools.
Stoops founded his very own charter school in Wake County and has advocated for expanding funding for private school voucher programs. Coincidently, the funding for private school voucher programs that several state Republicans have pushed for comes at the expense of funding for North Carolina’s public schools.
This hypocrisy becomes quite clear as Terry Stoops, along with other state Republicans, has made statements and refused to move forward with making crucial investments toward public schools through the Leandro funding plan.
Just last year, Stoops was also appointed to Lt. Governor Mark Robinson’s F.A.C.T.S taskforce to report on “indoctrination” in public schools across the state. In the end, the report found little evidence of what Robinson claims was “indoctrination,” with the main criticism for the manufactured witch hunt being that it was yet another Republican sideshow to distract from their continued effort to underfund public education.
Stoops, an advocate for the controversial merit pay, spreads disinformation about CRT, and has contributed to Truitt’s campaign in the past, appears to be another Republican who will dabble in gimmicks and political ploys to further dismantle the state’s public education system.
