Via email from the NC Democrats
For nearly 10,000 teachers, teaching assistants and school staff across North Carolina, the last day of school will be followed by their first day of unemployment.
The budget that the Republican leadership sent to Governor Perdue this weekend cuts nearly a billion dollars from our public schools. If adopted, these cuts would represent the single biggest step backward for education in the history of our state. After 100 years of progress, our best days will be behind us. After a single session of Republican legislative leadership, we will begin a rapid race to the bottom.
The reforms that took our grandparents from the farm to the classroom, that mandated kindergarten and early childhood programs like Smart Start, that brought education to every family and opportunity to every student with the dream to go to college; that's the progress that this Republican budget throws into reverse.
No Governor in the history of North Carolina has signed a budget that so blatantly disregards our traditional, constitutional commitment to public education. Do the Republicans really think that Bev Perdue will be the first?
Not in a million years--and not when her own proposal spares our schools these crippling cuts. What's the biggest difference between her budget and theirs? The preservation of the one cent sales tax, a proposal overwhelmingly supported by the vast majority of North Carolina taxpayers.
The fact is, she shouldn't have to bargain with Republican legislators for the money to adequately fund our schools. Quality education is a concept to so basic, so integral to what we expect in North Carolina that it's tough to convince our allies that we're in real danger of losing it.
But that's where we are. And Bev Perdue, who drew a hard line at protecting every teacher job and the integrity of every classroom, now faces that fight alone. One billion dollars in GOP jobs cuts will be landing on her desk this weekend, and she needs our support.
No Governor has ever vetoed the state budget, nor stood so singularly between a hostile political machine and the rights of the people of this state, but that is where Bev Perdue stands. It's an act of the highest political courage, and one that we as Democrats are privileged to share.
Let the Governor know that you support the veto of a budget that doesn't preserve the public education system that has made North Carolina great.
Sincerely,
David Parker
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