Harnett Dispatch

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

It has been a busy month and I have enjoyed seeing many of you across our district. Between Erwin Denim Days, the Million Man Ride in Broadway, Coats Farmer Days, Sandhills Antique Farm Equipment Club Swap Meet to the Benson Harvest Festival the one topic that has come up everywhere has been education.

There is no doubt that education is a critical issue in North Carolina and, thanks to disinformation galore, the issue is growing. The liberal media, NCEA, Moral Monday activists, and other special interest groups would have you believe that the recent policies of Republicans have created our problems in education. These same groups have created the myth that the key issues in education are: teachers’ salaries; teacher tenure; compensation for master’s degrees; classroom size; and this biennium’s budget. They further claim that all of these result from Republican’s fiscally conservative policies, conveniently ignoring the huge mistake of past administrations that planned on the continuation of temporary Federal funding. After a history of cuts under the Democrats, the state’s education budget has been increased by the last two Republican led biennial budgets.

Now North Carolina is reaping the results of Democrat education programs and finding that they have failed in every respect. How can we know these programs are failures? Anecdotal information helps, but facts and data are better. It is a fact that more than one in four high school students do not graduate. It is also a fact that the ACT is a nation-wide standard to determine if high school graduates will be successful at the college level. In 2013 testing, our high school graduates placed last in ACT testing in the nation. That’s right: Last! Since the ACT tests the product of an education process developed under former administrations and the NCGA was controlled by the Democrat Party, this data tells us these liberal programs are responsible for this sub-standard performance. The excuse that NC tested all of its students and many are not college bound is “smoke and mirrors” (disinformation) because college entry requirements are generally the same basic skills in math, English and science that are required to be successful in any walk of life. Echoing a common comment, one businesses person in the manufacturing sector put it this way: “We have to teach high school grads to do simple math and read a ruler.” It’s time we began to look at this issue with more thought and less emotion born of disinformation from special interest groups with agendas other than focusing on the students learning basic life skills.

Getting back to the basics has been a key element in the education strategy of the current Republican majority in the NCGA. Legislation in the past two “long sessions” has been focused on fixing the Democrat education process that produced the disaster mentioned above. The strategy includes reforms to strengthen literacy, improve graduation rates, reward teacher excellence, and increase accountability. We have focused on setting standards for teachers and students; encouraging school alternatives for parents to choose from and to create competition; developing standards for schools to meet; taking advantage of information technology to enrich the learning process; returning to basics by making multiplication tables and cursive writing mandatory; increasing opportunities for students to learn in-demand vocational skills by authorizing the community college system to admit high school freshmen and sophomores in career technical education and industrial engineering courses; and increasing the flexibility for local school districts to use state dollars where they are needed most (like teacher salaries).

There are those who think more money is the answer to our education woes. Here are a few more of those pesky facts. In the recently passed biennial budget, 56.3% of our state tax dollars went to fund education. How much is enough? Should we cut HHS to put more money into education? Should we increase taxes? Should we borrow more money? The Moral Monday crowd is fond of saying we are ranked 45th nationally in spending per student (at $8600). Actually, based on DPI data, when you add Federal dollars and local taxes for education our total state spending on education in NC we rank 11th in the nation and 2nd in the S.E. Region. Money is not the problem and more money is not the answer. Sometimes you just have to work harder.

In my opinion, the critical factor is the family. Until we can solve the problem of getting families, supported by communities, involved in sending children to school predisposed to behave responsibly and to learn, we are fighting an uphill battle that there is not enough money to win and the outcome of which is in doubt. To end on a happy note, I believe the mood of the NCGA all but ensures a raise for teachers (and some other State Government employees) in the next budget. Please know I will continue to work hard to make North Carolina a better place for us and especially our children. I look forward to seeing you in the district soon. I look forward to seeing you in the district soon. Call or stop by anytime.

With kindest regards, I am
Sincerely,

Senator Ron Rabin 
DISTRICT 12
(919) 733-5748 Office
(910) 489-4699 Cell/Text
300 N. Salisbury Street
Room 526, LOB
Raleigh, NC 27603
Email: Ron.Rabin@ncleg.net