A Fight for Rights

What is Red4EdNC?

Red4EdNC is a movement started for teachers by teachers in our state. Teachers have created a movement to shape future legislation and future classrooms in order to better education future generations by fighting for their owns rights to be protected in the process of seeking a better education system.
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As of July, 2018 the Red4EdNC advisory Board and Board of Directors have released a Declaration in defense of North Carolina’s Schoolchildren in order to bring to light what teachers have to go through and how it affects the children they teach.
 
“Over the course of seven years a hostility to the premise, the constitutional promise, and the provision of a high-quality public education for all, a decent respect to the citizens of that state requires a comprehensive list of the injustices that supermajority has inflicted upon its children and its teacher corps, as well as coherent vision for restoring that state to its former prominence as a leader in public education.”
 
 In other words teachers have decided that the State has no upheld its promises to the students to provide high-quality education for all while having respect for those teaching. This is from the introduction to the Declaration. The first paragraph ends with something profound:
 
“We take as our standard, North Carolina’s proud motto: ‘Esse quam videri —To be rather than to seem.’”
 
To be rather than to seem, meaning that teachers want to state to not just look good statistically or be praised for its education system, but they want the praise and statistics to be backed by fact. They want their education system to mean something not just look like its doing okay.

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A (not so) Brief History of Public Schools in NC

Public Schools have been around in one form or another since the settlers first came to America. In the beginning education came from the churches and private tutors. If your parent was rich, mainly plantation owners, you could be sent to England to be educated. If you could not go to a church run school or pay to be educated then you remained uneducated until the State’s Constitution was adopted in 1776. The State was now required to provide education (which people still had to pay for). By 1800 around 40 academies had been created for white males in NC.
           
In 1817, Archibald Murphey began a campaign for a State funded public education system. His campaigns lead the state to pay one-third of the expenses for 10 academies. Through his campaign, the State established a Literary Fund. This later became part of the State Board of Education, which passed The Education Act of 1839. The Act established the idea of financial support coming from both State and local funds. Progress was slow at first but by 1852 Calvin Wiley was appointed Superintendent of Common Schools and the State rose to the top in terms of school system by the time the Civil War broke out.
 
Fast forward to after the War and the Constitution of 1868. With the State in turmoil after the War, North Carolina adopted a new state constitution. This new constitution had a strong view on public education – a free public school from age six to twenty-one. It also allowed the Superintendent of Public Instruction to be elected by the people for a four-year term. As well as a four month (at least) school year, an education fund, and a State Board of Education. This went into effect in 1869.
 
With the election of Charles B Aycock into the position of Governor in the early years of the 20th century, an educational renaissance occurred. High schools were built in rural areas, funding was rethought and more money was out in place for schools, and the Compulsory Attendance Act was passed meaning kids had to attend school during at least four months of the year from age 8-12. Everything was progressing nicely until the Great Depression hit and schools were forced to close for lack of funds.
 
As the US entered the 1940’s, NC saw improvements in the schools. So much improvement that the 12th grade was added to high school and the school year was extended from 6 to 8 months. And with the Civil Rights movement came integration and better schooling/support for all students. Improvements to the education system continued through the 1970’s and into the end of the 20th century. With the start of a new century came new Presidents – each with their own plan as to what should be done with the education system across the nation.
 
In the late 90’s and early 2000’s North Carolina set standards as to what should be taught across the State. They started making progress and bettering the education system by adding funding and creating Boards to direct how the education system was run. Then in 2008 the Economic Recession hit the nation, impacting education the most (in my opinion). Thus began the problems that Red4Ed is attempting to address.

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The Problem

In the Declaration that Red4EdNC presented they list some of the issues that the education system has. Below are just a few from that list:

1. Failure to restore public education funding to the level it was at before the recession in 2008.
2. Slashed textbook funding has lead students to have to go without text books
3. Created a culture of fear and anxiety in terms of assessments
4. Shifted millions of dollars from public schools to private schools and charter schools
5. Taken steps to de-professionalize the teaching profession in NC

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Restorative Actions suggested by Red4Ed:

1. An increase in per-pupil funding (adjusted for inflation to pre-recession levels)
2. Salary restoration (adjusted for inflation)
3. Representatives who focus on removing poverty-based barriers to student success
4. A reassessment of testing regimens so that it informs future instruction rather than determining educators pay
5. Education policies should be debated publicly in committees and on the floor of representative legislative bodies and allow for input from the educators themselves

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​I present all this information to show that the North Carolina Education System has seen its share of setbacks, but it has always risen back to a higher standing. So why are we dismissing teachers demands for a better education system? If we can fix our education system every time that it has faced a setback, why can’t we fix it now?

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​https://www.red4ednc.com/
For more information and other teachers thoughts click here.

Blog. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.red4ednc.com/blog
Excerpted declaration with signatures and districts. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.scribd.com/document/386962811/excerpted-declaration-with-signatures-and-districts?secret_password=ZvCk5DEskR3SwAxcDUEB#fullscreen&from_embed
Red4EdNC. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.red4ednc.com/
The History of Education in North Carolina, Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED369713.pdf, Accessed on November 29, 2018.