Legislator Q&A: Senator Paul Newton said, I asked all my principals, ‘How many of you have been to the charter school that’s so successful here in Union County?’ None of them had been. And he said, ‘Every one of you have got to go spend a day at this charter school, take their best practices and bring them back here to our public schools.’ That to me is the value of, you can call it competition. I don’t know if that’s the right word. I think the right word is, again, remembering who we serve. We serve those children, we serve those families, and we’ve got to meet a child where they are. And if it’s better for that child, we ought to be able to make that happen. That means supporting K through 12, and it means supporting higher education as well. And we do that well. We get criticized in the media as a party for allegedly not doing that. But if you look at the data, I mean, almost 60% of our budget goes to education. So we’re spending an awful lot of money. If you look at places like New York, there’s no correlation between spending per pupil and outcomes. We’re looking for outcomes. I’ll tell you right now, don’t forget this: capital chases good ideas. If you’ve got a way to educate a child that makes them grow from wherever they came from educationally to a much higher place, you’ll get capital. You will get funded for that. People will want to be a part of that. But when you cross your arms and just say, I should be funded because I am, even though my school is failing, you can’t expect to get fully funded for that. I mean, you got to show this should be a meritocracy, just like the private sector is a meritocracy. And when superintendents and principals embrace that notion, that they’re no different than any other service for people, I’ll tell you, traditional public schools have so much to offer. They’ve got dedicated teachers, and that just needs to be pulled together and operated at an excellent level. And then the school choice issue will go away because everybody’s going to be very happy going to that local school. NCLM.ORG 17
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