State budget writers and representatives of the N.C. Association of Educators exchanged some cross words over the budget and the ed reps' claim that the Senate side is favoring state universities over K-12 classrooms.
The dust up exposed a rift between top Democrats in the legislature and an association that has a history of strong support for the party's candidates, Lynn Bonner reports.
The fight comes at a point in the budget wrangling where key members from each chamber are trying to agree on a budget and a tax package.
NCAE published an "Action Alert" says that Senate budget writers were ready to shortchange K-12 education while supporting public and private universities.
The legislative update quoted president Sheri Strickland saying, "They spend the fall telling the public that Democrats are to be trusted to protect public education. They even come to our headquarters trolling for money and with a straight face talk about the Democratic platform of protecting and professionalizing public education. All the while they are plotting and planning how to gut the classroom in favor of more bureaucracy and unaccountability."
Senators are not happy after the jump.
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The message attributed the information about the negotiations to a House budget writer, but at a meeting this afternoon, none of the House members copped to being the source when senators brought up the NCAE electronic newsletter.
"What are you talking about?" Rep. Mickey Michaux of Durham asked when senators started talking about the NCAE message. "I don't know of anyone over here who would say anything like that."
Apparently, the negotiators haven't dug in to the education budget yet.
"We haven't even talked about that," said Senate majority leader Tony Rand of Fayetteville.
Sen. Linda Garrou, a Winston-Salem Democrat, said she brought up the issue to clear the air.
The yelling started after the senators moved to another room to talk about a House proposal, and the NCAE lobbyists came in to talk.
Lobbyist Cecil Banks pointed to statistics that show "K-12 spending is on the slide."
The NCAE brought along figures that show that K-12 spending has declined from 41.1 percent of the budget in 1999 to 37.7 percent last year, while spending on state universities has remained at about 13 percent over.
Rand shot back that increased state spending on Medicaid was the reason. "Medicaid. It's known as Medicaid, Cecil."
Budget writers said their meetings are open to the public, but Banks said they aren't really.
Budget negotiations are not announced like other committee meetings are, he said, and when the public is there, they aren't given the paper work legislators exchange, so it's impossible to know what they're talking about.
"It's not really an open meeting process," he said.
Anyone who shows up at 8 a.m. will find the budget writers at work, Rand said.
Garrou said she didn't appreciate the message NCAE sent its members.
"It was very hurtful to me," she said.
Document(s):
NCAE brief.pdf
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Re: WOW
"They have to be scratching their heads wondering what that $4 million they gave to North Carolina Democrats in 2008 actually bought them."
Well, a dollar won't buy what it used to!