Medications or the Dollar Menu?

by Cindy Long

Cheryl Virgil, a teaching assistant at Lingerfeldt Elementary School in North Carolina’s Gaston County School District, is worried about her family’s future. She already struggles to make ends meet, but her meager salary could be cut by $1,400 – an amount that would mean choosing between medications for her son, who has a rare disease requiring chemotherapy, and putting food on the table.

“I can barely afford his $60.00 co-pay, and we can barely afford to eat on the McDonald’s dollar menu,” Virgil says. “I can’t buy a house. I drive the same clunker I’ve had for years. I shop at Goodwill. I do everything I can just to get by. Please, no more cuts. We hurt enough.”

(For more click on the audio-slideshow)

That was the message Virgil and hundreds of other educators, parents, and community members sent to the North Carolina Senate at the “Fund Schools First” rally in Raleigh last weekend. One educator dressed as the Grim Reaper, another waved a sign that said “Education Cuts Never Heal.” Even the students themselves sent legislators the message — one young girl wore a t-shirt saying “I Am the Future” on the front, and, “What am I worth?” on the back.

Packets were distributed with state senator and representative home phone numbers, and dozens of education activists made cell phone calls to their legislators — many of whom campaigned on the issue of education – to demand that they “fund schools first.”

The rally was organized by the North Carolina Association of Educators (NCAE), the North Carolina Parent-Teacher Association, and other education groups who want to restore discretionary cuts for local school districts. Schools are still suffering from the loss of 5,400 jobs last school year. If cuts are expanded for the upcoming year, they would lose another 4,000 positions — 1,500 of which are teaching assistant jobs.

On May 17, two days after the rally, the state Senate unveiled its proposed budget. In an economic climate where unemployment tops 20 percent in some North Carolina counties, and public school teachers and educators apply for unemployment benefits, the Senate kept a $304 million discretionary cut to public schools while preserving athletic scholarships at the 16-campus University of North Carolina system.

“This budget shows little commitment to K-12 public schools and its constitutional requirement that our state’s children have an opportunity to a ‘sound, basic education,’” said NCAE President Sheri Strickland. “We were told that this legislative session was about jobs. Under this plan, the Senate is allowing K-12′s discretionary cut to grow $79 million over last year’s $225 million cut. That will come from the classroom.”

And you can’t take much more from the classrooms, according to Bria Dunn, a junior at Mount Tabor High School in Winston-Salem. She says class sizes are ballooning, and schools can’t keep up with advances in technology. But she says her textbooks best illustrate the state of education funding in North Carolina.

“Our textbooks are taped together. They’re literally falling apart,” she says. “If they keep cutting education, five years from now students will still be using those same textbooks. Instead of progressing, our education system is lagging behind.”

After the North Carolina Senate votes on its budget, it goes to the House for a rewrite.

The House and Senate must agree on a budget before sending it to Perdue for her signature, and NCAE is urging educators to continue contacting their senators and representatives by email, phone, letter, and text message, to tell them that the budget must not be balanced on the backs of students and schools.

“I love my job, and I love my students, but I don’t know what will happen next year,” says Cheryl Virgil. “We need to tell America, education comes first.”

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2. Educators Greet Jobs Funding With Relief, Optimism
3. “I thought I’d stay forever.”
4. Without Senate Relief Jobs Picture Grim
5. Governors Join Fight for More Education Funding