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OPINIONS
May 16, 2019 |
 |
 Wingate Lassiter |
Why should folks at the coast decide
what's best for our public schools?
The North Carolina House of Representatives this spring approved, by a vote of 100 to 10, a bill that would give local school boards the option of aligning the opening of public schools with the start of a new semester at community colleges.
That would fix the calendar for Johnston County's schools to the liking of local leaders who want the academic year to start in mid rather than late August so a full semester's work can be done before the Christmas holidays.
With the current state rule that our public schools cannot start before the last week in August, Johnston County's current calendar shaves off a couple of weeks from the fall term in order to finish up before the holidays. That's a loss of instructional time that doesn't sit well with teachers and students who can't cover a semester's worth of subject matter as it ought to be covered.
So why hasn't the legislation that passed the N.C. House so handily been approved by the N.C. Senate?
Heck, it hasn't even come up for a vote in the Senate, apparently bottled up by leaders in that body who do the bidding of coastal tourism interests. To be specific, House Bill 79 has languished in the Senate Committee on Rules and Operations since late March. The chairman of that committee represents beach-front communities in Brunswick and Pender counties.
Talk about "local control" of public education, this kind of political stubbornness is hypocritical, not to mention what it does to undermine "democracy."
If we had true "local control" in this state, the coastal counties would be the ones with an option to exercise: whether or not to delay the opening of school so their young people could finish their summer jobs at the beach. The rest of us could move on with a sensible calendar that's puts education first.
Contacting
our legislators
If you'd like to correspond with state legislators who represent Smithfield and vicinity, here are their e-mail links:
Senator Brent Jackson
Representative Larry Strickland
Representative Donna White
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