T.R.U.E Report Will Do What Mark Robinson’s F.A.C.T.S. Report Didn’t Do

NORTH CAROLINA – Today (Sept. 29), Progress North Carolina Action launches the True Reporting of Underfunding Education (T.R.U.E.) Portal, a website for parents, educators, and community leaders to submit testimonies of challenges facing our cash-strapped schools. The Republican-led legislature has underfunded North Carolina’s schools, leaving teachers and staff left to bear the burden. The trend continues, as the most recent House and Senate proposed state budgets fall woefully short of the constitutionally mandated plan to provide a basic, sound education to our students.

While teachers go without raises and districts face massive bus driver shortages, Republican Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson led an unfounded witch-hunt to uncover evidence of “indoctrination” happening in North Carolina schools. Robinson’s task force, the Fairness, and Accountability in the Classroom for Teachers and Students (F.A.C.T.S.) launched an online portal to collect evidence of teacher misconduct in the classroom.

The result was a 250-plus page report that showed no signs of widespread indoctrination in North Carolina schools. In fact, over two-thirds of the submissions had nothing to do with the K-12 North Carolina curriculum. This task force chose an alternate assignment instead of addressing the real issues in our schools.

“The purpose of the T.R.U.E. portal is to shine a light on the real impact of chronic neglect and underfunding of North Carolina schools,” said Mecklenburg County teacher Justin Parmenter. “North Carolina is one of the fastest-growing states in the country and we have an opportunity to address real, critical issues such as teacher and bus driver shortages along with the outdated and crumbling infrastructure that many of our schools in North Carolina face. Our children deserve a quality education.”    

A state superior court judge ordered legislators to adequately fund education according to the terms of the Leandro plan by mid-October. Despite the court order, the currently proposed education budgets from both the House and Senate come nowhere close to meeting the state’s obligation, while Robinson’s task force does little to help provide a sound basic education for all students. Yet again, it appears the NCGOP failed the assignment.

Feature photo credit: AP