Agenda - 06-05-1995 - IX-A - Laserfiche WebLink

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Presentation to Orange County Commissioners by Peter Morcombe at the Orange County Courtroom on May 25, 1995 18 I am a parent with a child attending the Carrboro elementary school. It will therefore be no surprise that I want to see more money spent in the classroom and more schools constructed. However, there is no need to raise our taxes. Just eliminate the waste. Some weeks ago I called one of the Commissioners to ask why he was so eager to raise taxes and yet had shown no interest in cutting waste. He replied that expenditures in our public schools are in line with others in North Carolina. He is right. We are in line with public schools across the state and across the nation. American public schools spend more than any other country and yet rank near the bottom in scholastic achievement. Private schools get the job done with half the dollars per student. Until some progress has been made to close this gap, you should not even think of raising taxes. Three months ago, grass roots organizations from all over North Carolina made presentations on education to state legislators. State House members did not restrict us to three minutes. They listened to us and they are acting to reduce the size of government at state level. Now I ask you to follow their lead and reduce the size of government at the local level. In Raleigh, our presentation had fifteen charts. To comply with your time limit, the presentation has been condensed to a single chart. This chart compares the number of administrators in the CHCCS system to private schools with the same student enrollment. Ask yourselves whether the extra administrators in the public schools help or hinder academic achievement. Comparisons of service personnel show a similar picture. Public education in North Carolina accounts for 95% of the market. This constitutes a monopoly. When you have a monopoly, the management is always right and the customers are always wrong. The result is widespread discontent with our public schools. For example, taxpayers are frustrated because there is no meaningful fiscal oversight. The budgets presented to you hide 90% of the expenditures in the continuation budget which you rubber stamp every year. The continuation budget includes all of the programs from previous years, even if they have failed. We need zero based budgets to permit all expenditures to be reviewed. Today, you are being asked to approve the purchase of more deck chairs for the Titanic. You are not given any information on what is happening on the bridge or below the main deck. Our education administrators expect you to trust them because they are professionals. Just remember that the Titanic was built by professionals and the Ark was built by amateurs. Attachment: Administrators: Public vs. Private