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State Board of Education Chairman Bill Harrison writes in his blog that more school employees will lose their jobs if the state does not replace the $258 million in federal "edu-jobs" money that school districts are using to pay their employees.

Districts must spend all their federal stimulus money before the end of this year.

Harrison is responding Senate leader Phil Berger's comments Wednesday that replacing federal money with state money is the wrong approach.

Gov. Bev Perdue's budget replaces that federal money and does more, using revenue from a proposed 3/4-cent sales tax increase to add $562 million to the K-12 budget. The added money would bring K-12 spending to about $8 billion.

The wrangling over NC Pre-K continues.

Bill Harrison, chairman of the State Board of Education, has weighed in with a blog post that takes aim at Republican efforts to privatize the state's pre-kindergarten program and narrow the population that qualifies for pre-k services.

On Thursday, the House Select Committee on Early Childhood Education will meet to finalize recommendations about NC Pre-K.

A draft piece of legislation by the committee spells out that pre-k would be offered only in private child centers, Harrison writes, which is "clearly not in the best interest of the students and families the program was designed to serve."

Funneling taxpayer dollars to for-profit day care centers would reduce the number of licensed pre-k teachers "to unacceptably low levels," Harrison writes. Public school pre-k teachers are fully licensed, he said, compared to 30 percent of those in private centers.

"Some of these organizations are focused more on the bottom line then the children served," Harrison adds. "To keep profits coming in, some private centers will cut corners and sacrifice the high quality academic program all NC Pre-K programs should provide."

Harrison said 51 percent of children in the state program are served in public school settings.

Harrison asked readers of his blog to contact members of the committee to communicate their concerns about the future of NC Pre-K. "The futures of thousands of North Carolina’s youngest, at-risk learners could be at stake," he writes.

The debate on education spending continues to rage months after the state budget passed. (Mix NCAE's Daily Political Briefing and the Civitas Institute. Throw in a little Bill Harrison.)

Conspicuously absent are the hearings that House Speaker Thom Tillis said he would hold to have local district superintendents explain their spending decisions. 

Last year during the budget debates, Tillis said the budget paid for all teachers and teacher assistants, so superintendents who laid off classroom personnel would be brought in to Raleigh to explain. 

Those hearings were expected before the end of last year. Then, early this year, possibly February. 

Or not. 

Tillis spokesman Jordan Shaw said today that they will still happen, but there is no date set. 

"It will be before the short session," he said. 

In his blog, State Board of Education Chairman Bill Harrison recalls the bad old days when many North Carolina children couldn't attend school.

He cites the Civil War period when education was limited to about half of children (all white and mostly boys), and the Depression, when communities nearly lost their schools because there was no money. 

"This year, as we start a new school year, let's not take back-to-school for granted," Harrison writes.  "With the third consecutive year of significant and sustained budget cuts to public schools, we need to be vigilant that our state continues its support for public education because it serves a greater good for our state and its people."

Harrison points out that the public schools are always evolving and look different than even a decade ago. He cites virtual learning, charter schools, specialty high schools, new ways of measuring accountability and evaluating teachers

"Public education drives progress in North Carolina," he writes. "Throughout history, our state has prospered when we have invested in publicly funded schools and learning. Our state has faltered when we have made education and learning exclusive, uneven or unavailable for some children. The challenge is before us."

There's a raging debate about whether the state's public schools are failing or rising. The answer seems to depend on who you ask.

On Thursday, State Board of Education Chairman Bill Harrison was vehement in his defense of the schools, which he said are improving. He cited a graduation rate that has increased from 68 percent to 74 percent in the last four years. "It's not a broken system," he said.

He did stress that some numbers show failure, namely, teacher pay, which ranks near the bottom in the country. "That's embarrassing," Harrison said. "That's broken."

Senate leader Phil Berger, an Eden Republican, has repeatedly cited the statistic that North Carolina is 43rd in the nation in graduation rates. That figure apparently comes from 2007-08 data referenced by the Public School Forum of North Carolina.

Sen. Tom Apodaca, a Hendersonville Republican, said he prefers to look at national standardized tests to determine success.

"I don't think we have a greatly improving system, if we're improving at all," Apodaca said. "I think our budget takes steps to make some real gains in education that they like to talk about at [the Department of Public Instruction], but seldom do anything to accomplish."

Below are some indicators published in March by the Public School Forum, based on DPI data. Judge for yourself.

State Board of Education chair Bill Harrison spared no words today in expressing his disgust over the Senate budget that pushes cuts onto local school districts.

At the State Board meeting this morning, Harrison let loose in a 20-minute speech that drew a standing ovation.

"If you want to dismantle the public schools, if you want to privatize them, say it," he said in comments about the Republican budget plan.

"Don't say 'we're reforming a broken system,'" he said. "Say, 'I don't care about public schools, I'm going to break an improving system and here's my budget'....Let's be honest with one another, folks."

Harrison said the Senate budget would ditch important programs and force local districts to cut at least 9,200 jobs. He said he was proud of the progress North Carolina has made in recent years, citing graduation rates that climbed from 68 percent to 74 percent in the last four years.

"Right now, folks, I'm beginning to get embarrassed," he said. "I'm embarrassed by the rhetoric, I'm embarrassed by the bashing of everyone and everything, and I think this budget is a disgrace. It's not going to do one thing to help this state."

After his remarks, the State Board unanimously passed a resolution saying the budget would have serious impact on the children of North Carolina.

Rep. Paul Stam, an Apex Republican, said the latest budget plan is $19.7 billion, slightly lower than Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue's $19.9 billion plan. He said Harrison is off base with his comments.

"For him to say with a straight face that that difference will even be discernible shows that he has difficulty with math," Stam said.

State Superintendent June Atkinson and State Board of Education Chairman Bill Harrison are taking aim together at the House budget.

The two co-authored a blog post saying the budget headed to a House vote would put the state -- at best -- next to last in the nation in student funding, "but it's the long-term view that's even more disturbing."

They said districts face a 15 percent reduction in staffing levels, equal to 18,500 positions in all categories, from principals and teachers to clerical staff and custodians. That, say Atkinson and Harrison, means public schools will not be able to meet basic educational needs. They advocate keeping the temporary sales tax, as Gov. Bev Perdue proposed.

They also blasted the House bill that would give families tax credits for moving a disabled child from public school to private school. They called it an "incentivized pull-out" that has "a long-term goal is to chip away at public schools in general." And, they warned, the bill for disabled students is "a foot in the door" toward tax credits for all private schools families.

"It is hard to see a bright future for a North Carolina with last place school funding and a lukewarm commitment," they wrote.

State Board of Education Chairman Bill Harrison decried education cuts the House is considering, saying that chopping more than $1 billion from schools is "extreme and unnecessary."

The House education subcommittee has proposed cutting 8.8 percent from the K-12 budget, 10 percent from community colleges, and 15.5 percent from the UNC system.

"The notion that our schools and our children can do without $1 billion in funding is ridiculous, especially as public school enrollment in this state continues to grow," Harrision wrote.

Republican budget writers want the temporary one-cent addition to the state sales tax to expire as planned. Gov. Bev Perdue has proposed keeping part of the tax next year.

Harrison said it would be better to keep the temporary sales tax another year or look for new sources of revenue. If the proposed cuts go through, per pupil spending in the state could rank last in the South, he wrote.

North Carolina could end up dead last in the nation in per pupil funding under  proposals by House budget writers on Tuesday, state K-12 leaders warn.

"This budget would push our schools to a level of very bare-bones opportunities for students and for educational innovation," State Board of Education Chairman Bill Harrison said in a news release. "I am concerned for local superintendents who will have to find ways to meet students' educational needs with fewer school-based staff, without appropriate diagnostic tools for students and with limits regarding where they can make cuts to meet the state's $305 million 'discretionary' cut that local schools are already required to make."

House budget writers proposed an 8.8 percent cut, on top of the discretionary cut built into the current recurring budget. State education leaders said the proposals would continue larger class sizes in grades 4-12; would cut support staff in schools; would eliminate teacher assistants in second and third grades; and would trim assistant principals by one-fifth.

"This budget positions North Carolina schools to operate in only the most limited fashion," said State Superintendent June Atkinson. "Taken together, all of these cuts would severely limit what local  schools will be able to offer to students and will jeopardize more than 25 years of progress in our state."

The budget also includes a 25.58 percent cut to the Department of Public Instruction at a time when the state agency is overseeing the $400 million federal Race to the Top grant, trying to turn around 213 low-performing schools and overseeing public charter schools, which could expand significantly under legislation that recently passed the House.

Harrison and Atkinson pointed out that North Carolina ranks 46th in per pupil funding and 45th in teacher pay, but outperforms many states on various student achievement measures.

State Board of Education Chairman Bill Harrison pumped up More at Four in his blog, and said the board has a plan to cut its administrative costs.

More at Four, the state's pre-kindergarten program for children at risk of academic failture, is facing significant cuts next year as legislators look to close a $2.4 billion budget hole.

Harrison said the State Board of Education plans to vote next month on a funding plan that will cut administrative costs by $4.5 million and "direct even more resources straight to the classroom."

Republicans are considering combining More at Four with the early childhood health and education program Smart Start. 

"Any proposals being considered in the General Assembly to change the funding model for pre-kindergarten education to one better suited to child care are troubling as they could weaken the crucial components of More at Four-the high teacher quality and early learning standards-that have led to a narrowing of the achievement gap in our state," Harrison wrote. "Instead, we should support funding model changes that recognize the important role More at Four plays in North Carolina's seamless system of education."