Why have smart, low-income NC students been excluded from advanced classes? – “In theory, such things as race, culture and family background shouldn’t limit a child’s likelihood of being labeled gifted. In reality, the results of “intelligence” tests consistently yield the same advantage for white, Asian and non-poor students as traditional academic exams do. In 2015-16, for instance, CMS identified roughly 30 percent of white and Asian students in grades 3-5 as gifted, compared with about 4 percent of black and Hispanic students in those grades. The district doesn’t report that data based on income, but black and Hispanic students have significantly higher poverty rates.”

One of the main reasons that poverty and lower performing schools go hand in hand is that fact that school funding is tied to property taxes in this country. Older, poorer neighborhoods generate less property tax money and therefore the schools receive less funding in return. Wealthy neighborhoods pay more in property tax and receive more funding.

Trump’s Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has made it her life’s mission to drive public school into the ground so that her wealthy friends can siphon off government dollars for their school privatization schemes. “Funding for college work-study programs would be cut in half, public-service loan forgiveness would end and hundreds of millions of dollars that public schools could use for mental health, advanced coursework and other services would vanish under a Trump administration plan to cut $10.6 billion from federal education initiatives, according to budget documents obtained by The Washington Post.”

At the state level, we saw how vindictive Republicans in the Senate rammed through an amendment, dreamed up behind closed doors, which cut education funding in Democratic districts. “Here’s another nugget: The amendment stripped seven counties, represented by Democrats, from a program that financially supports teacher assistants working on a college degree.” 

The mission today is to call anyone and everyone from President down to General Assembly and let them know that you support a strong PUBLIC education system. We will not stand for them making education inaccessible to poor students, minority students, immigrant students or any other arbitrary box they try to lump our children into. Education is a human right and our legislators need to get with that program or get out.

UPCOMING EVENTS: 

Lobbying 101 Training Session – Tuesday May 23, 2017 at Guilford Co. Democratic HQ  2300 W. Meadowview Rd. Suite 110 Greensboro, NC Join us for a short training session with Maddie Majerus, Director of Organizing for Equality NC. She will explain a bit about the lobbying process, how to be most effective, and spend some time workshopping with us–i.e. teaching us how to prepare personal stories and tell them effectively when meeting with representatives, etc.