An alliance of 40 state and local groups have formed the Quality Schools Coalition to push back against education cuts in the House budget proposal. The group includes school/business partnerships and foundations that want the legislature to leave in place a temporary one-cent sales tax for two years. That, the group says, would help the state avoid devastating cuts.
Leaders of the group gathered outside the Capitol last Friday, flanked by school superintendents from around the state. They wore badges that said, "Our Children Are Worth a Penny and We're Already Paying It." The group's leaders say they will be at the legislature every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday to advocate their position.
They say the current proposed cuts ($1.2 billion from education) would set North Carolina schools back years, enlarging classrooms, eliminating teacher jobs and damaging the quality of education delivered to the state's children.
"The organizations that have come together basically don't believe we ought to become world-class budget cutters," Bill McNeal, executive director of the North Carolina Association of School Administrators, said outside the old Capitol building. "We don't have to do this. This is a self-inflicted wound and has more to do with political promises than with the common good."
The coalition said it would bring school and business leaders to the Legislative Building regularly over the next four weeks to lobby lawmakers to discuss what the lost revenue would mean for their local schools and how the penny could prevent drastic cuts after two previous years of cuts. The coalition wants it extended for two more years.
"The average person is paying less than a quarter a day as a result of this tax and we believe our kids are worth much more that," said Debra Horton, executive director of the North Carolina PTA. "This is the message that parents will be carrying to their legislators across this great state in the weeks ahead."
The extra penny was approved by the Democratic-led Legislature in 2009 to help close a budget gap near the height of the Great Recession, raising the sales tax floor consumers must pay on purchases to 7.75 percent. Many counties have slightly higher rates. The base rate would fall 6.75 percent if it were allowed to expire. Democratic Gov. Beverly Perdue's budget proposal would lower the base rate to 7.5 percent. |
