Gov. Bev Perdue is pulling out all the stops (or at least all the cabinet officials) as she traverses the state pitching the importance of public education to North Carolina and lobbing grenades at the General Assembly Republican budget, which would, in Perdue’s words, “turn back the clock” on schools. In this YouTube video, the governor accuses the GOP is leading a “race to the bottom” and setting North Carolina on the path of having the lowest education funding in America.
Really?
At the “Talking About Politics” blog published by Democratic consultant Gary Pearce and Republican consultant Carter Wrenn, Wrenn notes that, if you take the level of spending in the budget proposals by Senate Republicans and Perdue, and divide by the 1.5 million students in North Carolina, you’ll find that the GOP wants to spend about $4,700 per student while Perdue insists on $5,000.
So what the Governor and [Senate GOP leader Phil] Berger are arguing over is whether another $300 turns a student into a great well-rounded scholar versus dooming him to perpetual ignorance in ravaged public schools.
Now that might be an interesting debate: Phil Berger saying we ought to be able to provide a student with a first class education for $4,700 and Bev Perdue saying there’s no way on earth that’s possible.
