Governor's Budget Proposal is Good Starting Point for Public Education

RALEIGH, N.C., April 20 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following statement can be attributed to Sheri Strickland, NCAE president, in response to the release of Governor Bev Perdue's budget proposal today:

"Thousands of educators lost their jobs, class sizes have increased, and educators received furloughs and salary freezes. The governor's decision to pay back the furlough and unfreeze teacher salaries will be greatly appreciated by educators that are doing more with less. We commend her for her leadership on reversing the cuts to educators' pay.

"The General Assembly's challenge is to reverse the K-12 education job cuts.  Attempting to solve this budget crisis by laying off educators and placing students in overcrowded classrooms robs our children of a quality education and undermines North Carolina's economic future. We'd also like to see our Education Support Professionals – the hard-working men and women who drive school buses, work in cafeterias, and clean school buildings – offered a pay increase as well. They have had to take on extra duties and responsibilities due to budget cuts.

"In general, NCAE hopes that legislators see this proposed budget as a call to action to set the right priorities and make responsible revenue decisions that support schools, children and educators. The Governor has issued a mandate to local districts to maximize federal stimulus money to save jobs, which is at least 373 million dollars. Every school district needs to heed that message. An investment in public education is an investment in our future. We've also got a potential 700 million dollars from the federal government earmarked to save jobs in public education. We need to do everything we can to get the 'Keep Our Educators Working' bill through Congress.

"Representatives from every part of the education community – parents, educators, administrators, local elected officials and the state Department of Public Instruction – stood together just last week to say 'Fund Schools First.' No one wants to see job losses in public education or overcrowded classrooms. Both will put school safety, classroom discipline and student achievement at risk. North Carolina can't afford to back down on its commitment to children. Now is the time for every educator, every parent, every citizen who cares about children and public schools to get involved in the effort to "Fund Schools First."

NCAE is the state's largest education association representing nearly 60,000 active, retired and student members.

SOURCE North Carolina Association of Educators