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What
A network of scholars from colleges and universities throughout North Carolina who have come together to oppose devastating cuts to public school and service budgets and provide a resource center and speakers bureau on these issues for organizations and media.Why
We are deeply concerned about the massive cuts proposed to public K-12 education when our state's support for K-12 education is already behind that of 41 other states. We urge Governor Perdue to consider better ways of closing the budget gaps, including increasing revenues.Mission Statement
If you agree and are affiliated with a North Carolina institution of higher education, please sign on and invite your colleagues to join us.
As scholars from varied disciplines in North Carolina colleges and universities, we are so deeply concerned about the massive cuts in public K-12 education being proposed by the new legislature that we feel a need to speak out publicly. When our state's support for K- 12 education is already behind that of 41 other states, we find it unconscionable that North Carolina leaders are considering cutting school budgets by as much as 15-20 percent-or $1.2 billion.
Our research spans many fields, but whether historians, sociologists, economists, public health scholars, or specialists in other areas, we all concur that layoffs and cutbacks of this magnitude will devastate our state's economy, imperil its future prosperity, and set back its children in an ever more competitive labor market. Our public schools have already been cut to the bone over the past two years, with class sizes swelling in schools across the state. We urge Governor Perdue to hold the line on education and ask our legislators to consider better ways of closing the budget gaps, including increasing revenues. History shows that our vital public services and educational programs have all come about because of citizen need and demand, and we would be much worse off in the current crisis without them. Because we feel so strongly that strengthening public K-12 schooling is the only path to prosperity for North Carolina, we urge others to join us in organizing to safeguard the education of our state's young people and preserve the hard-won gains of the last century, on which all of us, especially our most vulnerable neighbors, depend.
To add your name or affiliation, send an email with your title and institutional affiliation to: ncptpi@gmail.com. Please also forward this post through your own networks and ask leaders you know to sign on. Make sure they send us their contact info so they can learn more!
