Former Deans of Kenan-Flagler Business School Criticize Budget Impasse
“As a result, every teacher and every state worker in North Carolina will get nothing.”
Douglas Shackelford and Paul Fulton, former Deans of the Kenan-Flagler Business School at UNC-Chapel Hill, criticized the failure of North Carolina’s Republican-led General Assembly in a blistering op-ed for Public Ed Works entitled No Christmas for North Carolina.
Some highlights:
Once again, for the second time in seven years, the NC General Assembly has failed to pass a budget. Our state stands alone as the only one in the country unable to complete its most basic responsibility.
Despite ongoing inflation and rising costs in every corner of life, legislators refused to approve raises for teachers and other state employees. The very people who keep our schools and public services running – who buy classroom supplies out of their own pockets, who keep prisons secure, who maintain our roads and safeguard our communities – will see their purchasing power shrink yet again.
Both chambers admitted teachers deserve more. But even with broad agreement that salaries must rise, lawmakers – particularly those in the Senate – still failed to do the one thing needed to deliver those raises: pass a budget.
We cannot keep underfunding our schools and then pretend to be surprised when classrooms lack teachers, when turnover spikes and when students fall further behind.
What’s wrong with legislators in Raleigh? The answer is simple: their priorities are not North Carolina’s priorities. If lawmakers want to prove otherwise, they can start by doing their job – passing a budget – and making long-overdue investments in the people who make our state run. Our teachers, our public workers, our students and our future deserve nothing less.
“North Carolina teachers and state employees are already underpaid, and we know they will not see a raise this year,” House Democratic Leader Robert Reives said. “The General Assembly’s failure to pass a budget is business as usual for politicians in Raleigh, but the working people who make this state great have real needs that have yet to be addressed. North Carolina should aspire to much more than what we have accomplished this year, which is very little.”
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