To the Editor:

N.C.’s GOP needs to fund our schools

Posted

In his recent Viewpoints column praising the expansion of school choice in N.C. (“Power is shifting toward parents,” News + Record, June 23-29), John Hood noted parent dissatisfaction with public schools. He mentioned possible solutions, adding that “neither option proved particularly effective.”

What he failed to do was explain why. The answer, of course, is the unwillingness of N.C.’s Republican-controlled legislature to fund public schools (and teacher salaries) to the level required to be top-notch. Had the tens (hundreds?) of millions of dollars bestowed on the charter and private schools been given instead to our public schools we would have that top-notch public school system. Instead, we are saddled with a chaotic system of sometimes inadequate and poor-performing charter and private schools not subject to the same scrutiny as are the public schools.

Michael Cotter
Chapel Hill