On Tuesday, after state Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger and
Senate education co-chairs Jerry Tillman (R-Randolph) and Sen. Dan Soucek
(R-Watauga) unveiled their “Excellent Public Schools” bill, Berger was asked
about Mayor Pat McCrory’s budget that will be released today. His answer should
keep the tongues wagging in the “who’s in charge” debate pitting the new
Republican governor against the GOP power-shakers moving the legislature –
Berger and House Speaker Thom Tillis.
He’s “interested” in any “suggestions” that Gov. McCrory will
make, he said. Suggestions? Ummm. Berger also said he was particularly
interested to hear “what he (McCrory) will do with Medicaid.”
He’s got some liberal company in wondering about that. Chris
Fitzsimon writing on an N.C. Policy Watch blog Tuesday pondered of McCrory’s
budget reveal: “Will the misinformation and attacks on Medicaid continue?
McCrory continues to draw criticism for his decision not to expand Medicaid
under the Affordable Care Act to provide health care coverage to more than
500,000 low-income adults.
His response has been to claim that Medicaid is broken even
though much of the overspending cited in a recent audit was the result of
unrealistic cost savings included in the budgets passed by the General Assembly
in the last two years even after lawmakers were told the savings were
impossible to achieve.”
Fitzsimon also wondered what McCrory would say about education,
noting that “a bizarre music video press advisory released by McCrory’s office
Tuesday included clips from McCrory talking about his commitment to education.
But recent reports have ranked North Carolina 48th in the country in per pupil
expenditures and 46th in teacher pay with starting teachers working 14 years to
earn $40,000.”
That brings us back to Berger and company, and their
education bill. Senate Bill 361 includes what the lawmakers dub as “efforts to
strengthen student literacy, improve graduation rates, increase accountability
in the classroom, reward effective teachers and give parents tools to make
better informed decisions about their children’s education.” But it fails to
tackle at all the recent news about the state long-ranking on teacher pay.
The
legislators said the pay scale will remain similar to how it is now but the
bill calls for bonuses or salary supplements “for teachers who perform above
and beyond.”
The bill also calls for hiring teachers on contracts of one
year up to four years. It also reiterates an intent to go to a “pay for
excellence” or merit pay system as soon as a “robust evaluation instrument and
process that accurately asseses and evaluates the effectiveness of teachers,
especially in the area of student growth,” is developed. When will that be? “DPI
(the Department of Public Instruction) is working on it,” was the reply.
Stay tuned.
3 comments:
Keep 'em dumb so they'll vote republican.
Be dumb and vote Dimocrat
NICE BLOG!!! Education is the process of bringing desirable change into the behavior of human beings. It can also be defined as the “Process of imparting or acquiring knowledge or habits through instruction or study”. Thanks for sharing a nice information.
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