Keep Public Money in Public Schools

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NEA Issue Explainers & Documents

GCAE Campaign Framing, 2023-24

Keep Public Money in Public Schools - NCAE Locals

2024 Guilford Funding Analysis

Spring 2024 Campaign: Guilford's Schools Need Guilford's Help

Guilford’s schools are underfunded and have been underfunded by the North Carolina General Assembly for over a decade. Attacks on public schools continue to intensify with our school district losing millions of dollars to charter schools every year and a new voucher expansion program that could siphon off another $12 million from GCS. Guilford’s schools need Guilford’s help. We are calling on the GCS Board of Education, the Guilford Board of County Commissioners, and our community of public school workers and families to help our schools now, in the face of continued attacks of extremists and privatizers who want to dismantle our public school system.

We are once again calling on our elected leaders to stand up to the supermajority in Raleigh and protect our public schools from the crisis conditions their attacks and cuts are creating in our schools. This means using local funds to increase pay for certified and classified public schools workers and planning for a future that sees all public school workers paid fairly for the important work of educating the children of Guilford County. It also means not using local funds towards charter capital outlay projects, as has been suggested by recent legislation from the North Carolina General Assembly. Because the General Assembly is creating an emergency situation in our local schools, we are calling on our local community to mitigate the harm. Guilford’s schools need Guilford’s help.

Fall 2023 Campaign: Freedom to Learn

This week – after months of delay – the supermajority in the North Carolina General Assembly passed another terrible budget for public schools. Public school workers and families in Guilford County have felt the impacts of years of cuts from the state, and we are not surprised to see them continue to gut our public schools with more cuts – with hundreds of millions MORE dollars going to wealthy families who send their kids to private schools. That money is siphoned away from public schools where the vast majority of our kids go and into the pockets of the wealthy few.

We are not surprised to see them once again try to spin cuts as an “increase” when it won’t begin to cover increased costs of living and educating due to inflation – let alone meet North Carolina’s constitutional obligation to provide a sound public education for every child.

Most of us in Guilford County, parents and public school workers alike, believe that every child in our community, regardless of race, class, or gender, deserves the #FreedomToLearn in safe and just public schools – no exceptions. But for far too long, this small group of politicians in Raleigh have starved our public schools of needed resources, sown division, and exploited whatever differences they can.

It’s time to come together to harness the transformative power of our shared commitment to defend the #FreedomToLearn that belongs to every public school student in this county.

We are calling on our elected leaders to stand up to the supermajority in Raleigh and protect our public schools from the crisis conditions their attacks and cuts are creating in our schools. This means honoring commitments Guilford County Schools has made to both classified and certified public school workers. And it means calling the situation the NCGA supermajority is creating what it is: An emergency in our community.