North Carolina US Senate Race

As a follow-up to some information about school spending that I found and posted on Facebook a few days ago, I've been looking around on the internet, trying to find out where all the money that isn't improving our children's education is going.

The bottom line of the article is that we're spending three times as much in inflation-adjusted dollars, now, compared to 1970, but our children's reading, math, and science scores have remained flat. Here's the link to the article that started my search.  It's a good read and good information but very troubling.

http://www.cato.org/blog/addressing-critics-purportedly-no-good-very-bad-chart?utm_content=bufferd20a4&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

While I was searching for education budget information, I stumbled upon the following article about the North Carolina U.S. Senate race.

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2014/oct/07/kay-hagan/debate-kay-hagan-says-thom-tillis-cut-education-50/

Kay Hagan, the incumbent Democrat, in ads and in the recent debate, has claimed that her opponent, current NC House Speaker, Thom Tillis, cut education by $500 million.  Did he?  She claims it's all
Thom Tillis' fault.  Is it?  Among other things, Hagan claims our students don't even have textbooks any more.  Do they?

As this second article points out, during the time Tillis has been NC House Speaker, NC spending on education has increased every year.  So, did Tillis cut $500 million from the budget?  Obviously, he did not.

What the NC State Legislature, House and Senate, did, in a solid majority vote that was also signed into law by our Governor, was to reduce requested spending by $500 million.  So, is it Tillis' fault the schools didn't get everything they requested?  Not in your wildest dreams.  Further, during the same time period that North Carolina state spending on education increased, federal funding for NC education dropped by $337.6 million.  That's right--Federal funding dropped and state funding increased.  How inconvenient for Kay Hagan.

Do our North Carolina students have textbooks?  I can answer this with first-hand information, as I still have one high school student at home.  Many high school students do NOT have textbooks for many of their classes.  Why?  Because they've all been issued laptop computers which provide superior access to information being taught.  It's much more current and easier to update than textbooks, which often are years out of date before they're replaced.  So, is this Hagan claim true?  Technically, yes, but it's disingenuous at best.

My request for all my North Carolina friends who may base voting decisions at least in part on our education needs is to look carefully at the truthfulness of the information being presented.  Then, decide for yourselves.  As for truthfulness of the candidates, what I remember distinctly is Kay Hagan telling us repeatedly, "If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.  If you like your insurance, you can keep your insurance.  Your healthcare costs are going to go down."  Wrong, wrong, and wrong.