For Immediate Release
August 12, 2011
Contact: Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II, President, 919-394-8137
Mrs. Amina J. Turner, Executive Director, 919-682-4700
Atty. Jennifer W. Marsh, Legal Redress Coordinator, 919-682-4700
The NC NAACP Commends Governor Perdue for Upholding the Constitutional Rights of Poor and Minority Four-Year-Old Children
In 1868, Blacks and Whites came together in Raleigh, NC to create a constitution that guarantees a sound, basic public education for all North Carolinians. Last month, 143 years after the historic gathering in Raleigh, Judge Howard Manning ruled that the budget passed by extremists in the NC General Assembly violates the constitutional rights of four-year-old children in North Carolina. The North Carolina NAACP commends Governor Perdue for fulfilling her duties to the North Carolina State Constitution by issuing Executive Order No. 100, demanding the state fulfill its moral and legal obligations to at-risk children. The Governor knows that not taking action is not an option. It is time the leadership in the General Assembly realizes the same.
"Apparently the radical right-wing forces in the General Assembly have the illusion that Judge Manning's ruling is only a suggestion," said Rev. Dr. William J Barber, II, President of the NC NAACP. "They have been so blinded by an ideologically-driven agenda that they cannot bring themselves to see how their actions are hurting our most precious little ones. The legislators, both Democrats and Republicans, who voted for the destructive budget, are not denying their own children access to a sound, basic education. Instead, they targeted poor and minority four-year-olds to bear the brunt of unwise and devastating cuts to public education. Judge Manning's ruling is a confirmation of what the NC NAACP and other progressive organizations have argued all along: the people running the NC General Assembly are breaking the law."
The NC NAACP calls on the NC General Assembly to comply with the State Constitution and a higher moral law and correct the funding problem. They should provide the money to properly fund a sound basic education as ordered by the courts and constitution.
The budget required the state to cut spending on pre-kindergarten programs by 20 percent. It also required 80 percent of families to pay up to 10 percent of their income to participate and limited the enrollment of at-risk children to 20 percent of the four-year-old children served in the pre-kindergarten program.
These barriers would all but eliminate the pre-kindergarten program for the children who needed it the most. It is unfathomable to ask families of at-risk children to pay thousands of dollars so their child can attend public school. Asking most families to pay 10 percent of their income would mean a family scraping by on $20,000 per year would be asked to pay $2000 for their child could attend a public school program. It is ridiculous to believe that families who have children meeting the requirements for the pre-kindergarten programs would have the disposable income to pay 10 percent of their income for these programs.
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