The following was also published in the Winston-Salem Journal on April 6th, 2025.
The 16-million-dollar deficit identified in a recent WS/FCS budget audit surely is a matter of concern. Understandably, that shortfall along with a similar one just three years ago immediately causes screams for immediate budget cuts and reallocation of funds. But it is not an isolated matter or an outlier for this school system or any other in North Carolina.
Rather it is symptomatic of a larger problem within public education for all NC school systems, and while our school board and county commission may be scrambling to offer quick and overt short-term solutions, it is apparent that our public schools have been woefully underfunded for years and that our elected and appointed officials should address that.
In fact, they should openly fight for more school funds – not just on the local level, but on the state level because the last solution this school system or any other in NC needs is more “budget cuts” on school levels. What WSFCS is experiencing financially is what all public school systems across the state are experiencing: underfunding.
In 2008, North Carolina had over 7000 more teacher assistants in our public schools. Vacancies within classrooms were nearly nonexistent. Colleges of education at both public and private institutions in this state were thriving. Now NC has thousands of vacancies, larger class sizes, and more unqualified teachers in our classrooms than ever before.
When your state is routinely ranked as a “Best For Business” in the nation while at the same time almost next to last in funding efforts for its public schools, that screams misplaced priorities. When corporate taxes in NC are the lowest in the nation while vouchers are expanded to wealthy people in suburbs, then that displays deliberate neglect for our most disadvantaged students. When lawmakers in NC brag about budget surpluses and ignore the LEANDRO decision, then they are openly waging a war against public schools.
With the infusion of ESSER funds from COVID relief efforts, North Carolina was able to fund support structures for a short amount of time that have been in need for many years before the pandemic. Accounting for inflation, North Carolina has never returned to pre-recession funding levels (pre-2008) for its public schools. Now those ESSER funds are gone, but the needs are still there. Some services are needed more now than ever.
Add to that what effects may result from the federal government’s recent actions. The downsizing of the Department of Education and “reappropriation” of student loan management, special education funding changes, and the elimination of meals for students will only exacerbate already open wounds. No wonder one local audit can send a single school system into triage when it was barely able to manage the hemorrhaging from being under-resourced for years.
Our elected and appointed officials should be willing to fight for our public schools instead of being lulled into a state of complacency that many people in Raleigh want us to exist in.
When an elected official wins a seat on a school board or county commission, that person should understand this is something which involves advocating for our public schools. That person asked for it. In fact, that person campaigned for it and openly claimed to want to fight for our schools.
The answer to what ails our school system is certainly not more cuts in the budget that involve people and resources directly affecting student outcomes. The answer is to invest more in our schools. Look back when our schools were healthier before the Great Recession and there is a bigger commitment to funding them fully.
Now is the time to fight. For schools and students. Not against teachers and administrators. Fight for communities. Not openly amongst yourselves. Loudly fight for more funding and not settle for some draconian funding formula that ultimately punishes schools and students for years to come. Not fighting for more funding now is settling for exactly what the powers in the General Assembly have been conditioning local school districts to accept as normal.
School boards and county commissioners should be openly united in confronting General Assembly members urging them loudly to bring North Carolina up to national averages in per-pupil expenditures, teacher pay, and support staff funding.
They should be trying to remove the many obstacles within their control that could affect the classroom environment – not creating more.
