When State Attorney General Josh Stein announced that he was running for governor after Roy Cooper’s term expires, it started to frame a clearer picture of what that race will look like if (then) current political ambitions played out.
State Attorney General Josh Stein against Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson.
And if you are an advocate or ardent supporter of our public schools then there is really only one true candidate who will fight for our public schools: Josh Stein.
Stein has fought against privatization efforts by people like Betsy DeVos.
And while he was a state legislator he challenged the GOP supermajority in its efforts to divert money to privatizing reform efforts.
Remember House Bill 334 from the summer of 2015? Then Sen. Jerry Tillman championed an amendment to that bill to place oversight of charter schools under the care of the State Board of Education and out of the Department of Public Instruction’s jurisdiction. That was when Dr. June Atkinson was the state superintendent. She would have made sure that charters would be overseen as much as possible. Today’s state super is not as keen on that transparency.
What House Bill 334 would have done was to allot more money on charters by creating a situation where Tillman could have protected them from checks and balances. It was a way for Tillman to fashion a favorable situation for new charter schools to not only operate more freely, but be less transparent.
Lindsay Wagner in a news story entitled “Tillman’s bill impacts charter school oversight” detailed the abrupt manner in which Tillman fielded questions from other legislators who were concerned with the surreptitious manner in which he operated. Tillman made ludicrous statements such as:
- · “DPI was never in love … with charter .”
- · “I’m not going to give you the details. A good lawyer would never do that.”
- · “We don’t air dirty laundry here.”
The person he was talking to? Josh Stein, the current NC Attorney General.
And what has Mark Robinson done in his capacity as a member of the State Board of Education and mouthpiece of far-right policies?
Baseless witch hunts, bashing the LGBTQ community, and making speeches at NRA conventions.
This is a man who said the following words in 2021 while talking at Berean Baptist Church:
About that “task force” to find teachers who indoctrinate:
There are those social media posts.
There is that anti-abortion stance he takes with a history that contradicts the narrative.
Plus the denial of systemic racism.
And a total lack of having done anything substantial to help our public schools as the highest ranking official in the state’s GOP.
Josh Stein has been going after people and companies preying on our citizens and students.
Public schools are much better served with Josh Stein as governor than Mark Robinson.
