Use NC surplus, rainy day fund to implement court-ordered public school plan

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Use NC surplus to improve schools

The writers are League of Women Voters of Charlotte-Mecklenburg’s Education Committee co-chairs.

In a recent ruling by N.C. Superior Court Justice David Lee, the court once again affirmed a 25-year old ruling that N.C. lawmakers have failed to meet the demands of the N.C. Constitution that the state provide every child access to a sound basic education.

Judge Lee’s ruling includes a comprehensive remedial plan that lays out programs, action steps, and funding projections to fulfill that obligation. Still, N.C. Senate budget writers continue to ignore the courts, the people, students and educators and make no effort to remedy this decades-long neglect.

Their failure to provide adequate funding is even more egregious in view of the projected $6.5 billion in unanticipated revenues over the next two years and the state’s current $5 billion rainy day fund. The Senate leadership again proposes tax cuts in place of funding the pre- and post-pandemic educational needs of public education.

This is unconstitutional and neglects the potential of North Carolina’s current and future generations, as well as the economic future of the state.

It is no secret that North Carolina is experiencing dramatic population and demographic shifts in both rural and urban counties. Education is a key ingredient of providing job opportunities and prosperity that are the backbone of strong communities. The proposed remedial plan is a prudent and wise policy, something that is sorely lacking in the current budget proposal.

Funding and the implementation of policies and programs put forth in Judge Lee’s Leandro ruling and the comprehensive remedial plan are essential and made possible without a tax increase by the increase in revenues. There is a court order. There is a plan. There is funding. What is needed from the legislature is action!

John Lee

Jeanne Smith

Why NC must expand Medicaid

When I started working as a physician in North Carolina, I was shocked to discover that every medical decision depends first on whether my patient has health insurance. Seventy percent of the patients I see now don’t.

Now, when I suspect a life-threatening blood clot, I must ask: Do you have the $2,000 to pay for an ultrasound?

These impossible decisions are part of the original pandemic. Untimely deaths from preventable conditions continue to ravage the community where I work. We’ve funded policing to keep citizens safe, but real safety comes from access to resources, not cops. I am stemming a flood, patching holes where we could be building alternatives.

The deck is stacked. Black Americans are at double the risk of having a first stroke as white counterparts. An Indigenous person born in our state can expect to live 5.1 years less than if they were born in California. And in N.C. nearly 1 in 3 Latinx individuals could not see a doctor in the past 12 months due to cost alone. In N.C., health insurance compounds these odds, often determining my patients’ fate.

This year, N.C. legislators have the chance to change the odds. Just as Durham Beyond Policing, Raleigh PACT and others have introduced bills to help reshape our systems of policing, we have a rare opportunity with the federal grants built into the American Rescue Plan Act. Accepting this federal incentive to expand Medicaid will save money and extend coverage to more than 682,000 North Carolinians. My patients can stop agonizing over impossible decisions, scrambling to save for the stress test that could save their lives. Almost 70% of N.C. voters favor expansion; why doesn’t the General Assembly agree?

Let’s invest in prevention and stop turning manageable diagnoses into a life sentence of unpayable hospital bills. Don’t let politics get in the way of our well-being. Put healthcare first and expand access to the life-saving services our communities need.

Dr. Laura Ucik, Henderson