Crazy In NC: Public Screwing Continues Edition

The myth of limited resources to support NC education | News & Observer:

One of the ongoing tensions underlying much of the current debate over public education in North Carolina is the amount of money available to support our schools.

Last year, with an economic recovery resulting in a $400 million surplus – the first such surplus in years – educators and public school champions regularly heard from lawmakers that the resources “just weren’t there,” that funding important investments for our students and schools would necessitate cuts elsewhere.

But the problem wasn’t resources. It was priorities.

The benefit of last year’s economic recovery to our public schoolchildren was nowhere near what it could have been. Changes to the state’s tax code “shrunk the pie” and left significantly less money available. How much less? Reductions in corporate income taxes alone reduced available resources by $450 million this year and $700 million next year. Even modest changes would have made it possible to fund many of the worthy education priorities that were instead left on the cutting-room floor...