NC legislator: Our House budget politicizes classrooms, fails families | Opinion
I am a mom of three kids in public schools. For over a decade I was a volunteer in their elementary school. I started by shelving books in the media center, then ran the book fair for several years, and eventually became PTA president.
My passion for helping the students and teachers at that one school turned into a passion for serving all schools in Wake County as the Wake County PTA president, and later into a passion for serving all North Carolina students as a member of the PTA state board.
As a parent and someone who was in our schools every week for over 10 years, I always felt welcomed and appreciated there. The narrative I’ve heard at the N.C. General Assembly that parents are somehow unwelcome or not involved in our educational system is not my experience.
As a parent, I am deeply concerned with the policy contained within the N.C. House budget that fundamentally changes how our education system is run in North Carolina. I am frustrated that while this bill includes some salary increases for teachers, it once again fails our students by failing to uphold our constitutional obligations.
Many of the policy changes in this budget feign to give voice to parents, but instead, we are playing politics with our children’s futures.
At a time when teachers are already feeling pressure due to staff shortages and lack of resources, this budget continues to undermine the authority of the teaching profession and fails to support teachers. The education policy changes contained in this budget are a distraction from the very real issues facing our public schools and from the very real issues that families with school-aged children like mine need to be addressed, like teacher shortages, school funding, textbooks and classroom supply budgets, the need for more teacher assistants and support staff, the crumbling state of our school buildings, and the mental health of our students.
Instead of distracting from these issues by creating politically appointed commissions and media advisory committees, we could address them.
I spent years working to involve parents, guardians and grandparents in their student’s school. Our PTA mission was to elevate family and community engagement in public education, but the policies contained within this House budget are not the way to do that.
Transformative family engagement occurs when families, schools and community leaders work together to create programs, practices and policies that empower parents and teachers.
Families can make an impact on their school by getting involved with groups like the PTA or their school improvement plan committee. I’ve never known a teacher who wouldn’t welcome an extra set of hands in the classroom or stay after school for a conference to talk through concerns or questions about curriculum.
Collaboration, not micromanagement, is the way to improve educational outcomes for kids.
I want to elevate the voice of parents who are truly concerned about the state of public education — and I’m not talking about how we choose the standard course of study. I’m not talking about how we select the materials that our children are using in their classrooms. I’m not talking about the need to post lessons online. I trust teachers. I trust educators. And what I want from this budget is what most parents want — the best, most robustly funded and supported public schools that we can provide our children.
This budget does not address those concerns.
Our state legislature has a duty to fully fund our public schools, but we have yet to fulfill that obligation. Instead, we are failing our families by politicizing our classrooms. North Carolina students and teachers deserve better.