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Gov. Bev Perdue brought her “raise taxes to save teachers” campaign to Charlotte this morning, saying legislators need to make “deep, hard cuts” but avoid harming classrooms.
“North Carolina must raise the revenue it needs to have good teachers in every classroom in North Carolina,” Perdue, a former teacher, said in a news conference at Elizabeth Traditional Elementary. “Don't fire teachers. Don't fire teacher assistants. Give us the supplies we need to open our schools in the fall.”
Perdue offered few specifics, but noted that she favors using taxes on tobacco, alcohol and the state's highest earners to help fill the “$4.7 billion hole in our state budget.”
The state budget, which covers about 60 percent of CMS's budget, is still working its way through the legislature, as lawmakers work to reconcile House and Senate plans. The new budget year starts July 1, but legislators haven't always had a budget ready by that date.
The House plan would raise taxes by $780 million; Perdue has privately told lawmakers that should be bumped up to between $1 billion and $1.5 billion, the Raleigh News & Observer reported.
“I want you to call the General Assembly,” Perdue told the crowd of educators and others in Charlotte. “I want you to flood their e-mail boxes.”
Kim Hargett, a Union County teacher, said she likes Perdue's approach: “Everything she's proposing is optional. People can choose whether to smoke. They can choose whether to drink.”
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools has already cut about 1,300 jobs, including more than 600 teachers, in anticipation of state and county cuts for 2009-10. Superintendent Peter Gorman plans to present two more layers of budget cuts – a $13 million option and a $33 million option – to the school board on Tuesday; he has not said how many jobs will be involved.
Mecklenburg County commissioners, who provide about 30 percent of the district's $1.2 billion budget, voted this week to give CMS $34 million less than the $351 million CMS got this year.
Perdue repeated her call for local districts to use federal stimulus money to save teacher jobs. She urged people to hold local school boards accountable if they're getting rid of teachers, and voiced skepticism that such cuts are needed in Charlotte: “This is one of the most thriving cities in America, not just North Carolina.”
Gorman plans to explain Tuesday how he'll spend federal money designated for high-poverty schools and students with disabilities, but he has repeatedly said CMS has yet to receive any stimulus money that's available to spend as needed.
Perdue is spending most of today in Charlotte, with visits to Central Piedmont Community College this afternoon to talk more about stimulus money and meet with business and civic leaders taking part in the Charlotte Chamber's tour of the city. This evening she'll take her pitch for education spending to Asheville, continuing a tour that started Wednesday in Raleigh.
