Since becoming an adult, I have become a news junkie. My parents always watched the evening news and I hated it. So boring! But for whatever reason, I became an adult that watches the local news every evening. At this point, it’s a part of my daily routine that keeps my nervous system calm. I have one local channel that I am a die-hard fan of. It’s the one my parents watched when I was younger. It’s not so bad watching that channel because while it does have its flaws, they don’t broadcast a lot of national political news. Plenty of politics related to our state, but that’s to be expected on a local channel.
Last night, I was watching their coverage of the election results. Lots of analysis was done about the flipped seats in our state house and senate. As I was watching, there was another, unrelated, story that caught my attention. I then put 2 and 2 together and texted my friend about it. I texted the friend who was my administrative assistant at the school where I was a teacher and principal. She is still there in that role. I almost didn’t text her because what I had to say could have come straight from my former “mentor’s” lips. Let me explain.
Here are the news stories that I connected and that raised a red flag with me. First, there was a story about how the North Carolina public school system just announced that they need 18 billion dollars in order to fix all the issues with all of the school buildings and properties in the state. There are always stories about the air conditioning going out on some of the hottest days in August. So they need a LOT of money. Next, the news reported that the three amendments that were on our ballot passed. One of those amendments would cap the property tax. As in, lawmakers can’t raise the property tax higher than a certain percentage. Public schools get their funding from property taxes. That means, if they need 18 billion dollars to fix schools, they’ll be hard pressed to get it from property taxes. Then came the third story. The election. Democrats took control of the N.C. House. There’s a recount happening in the senate where only 1 seat will decide who has control, it’s that close. Republicans have had control of the General Assembly for at least 10 years. Likely longer. Over the course of their time, they created a private school voucher program called the Opportunity Scholarship. This scholarship taxes government money and gives it to parents who want to send their children to private schools. If that sounds controversial to you, it is. It is a hot topic in North Carolina when it comes to school funding. Public schools hate it because it takes money away from them and private schools love it because it raises their enrollment. Families who could never afford private school can now send their kids to one. Believe me, working in a private, Catholic school meant that I am very familiar with how our school benefitted from this program.
Now let’s put it all together. If Democrats have control, they’re likely going to want to do away with the Opportunity Scholarship or severely cut how much funding goes toward it. They’re especially going to consider it when they see how much need there is for more money to go to public schools and how little they’ll be able to pull from property taxes. And here’s where I texted my friend. I told her that the not-so-new principal (the one that took over after I left) needs to listen to the news because she and I both know that without that scholarship, that school will close. The ratio of scholarship vs. non-scholarship paying families leans majorly in the favor of scholarship families. The school won’t survive if all those families can no longer attend.
But here’s why it bothered me that I sent that text. When I was going through that year from hell as a principal-intern, my “mentor” harped on me all the time about staying informed and watching news on more than just my favorite channel. In fact, she was so adamant about that, she put it in one of my regular evaluations she had to do on me. So now, years after she drilled that into my head, I finally caught something significant that could have a real impact on the school. She would be so proud.
How I feel about that is a bit conflicted. I feel smart for having put all of those pieces together. And I’m a little bit sad that I have no good use for this information. I used to be really good at my job. I’m good at my new one, but that job made me feel smart. I had a lot of things that I did and knew about. So I’m a touch resentful that I don’t have that anymore. However, I do know that I’m absolutely where I’m supposed to be and I have no desire to go back or even give more time to these thoughts than I already have.
Just some thoughts I had looking backwards. Now back to the present, where I’m about to leave for a whole hour to have lunch, because my new job is awesome like that, and I get that much time during the day. Enjoy the rest of your day, friends!
Leave a Reply