ICYMI: NC Editorials Slam Mark Robinson’s Plan to “Reject Federal Funding” For Public Schools

“Turning down federal funds would deal another serious blow to already shamefully underfunded public schools in North Carolina.”

Following Mark Robinson’s pledge to reject federal funding for public education, saying, “We don’t want your money,” editorials across the state are slamming his plan as damaging and reminding North Carolinians – “we should take it seriously.”

The Greensboro News and Record sums up Robinson’s position simply: “Read their lips …less money for schools.” They point out that rejecting these resources would “deal another serious blow to already shamefully underfunded public schools” and disproportionately impact the “poorest and most vulnerable students” in the state. But Robinson has no plan to make up the $1.67 billion-sized budget hole. Triad City Beat noted that “Robinson failed to address the immediate consequences of this move…we’re talking teacher’s salaries, early childhood education, sports teams, gas for the buses.”

This lopsided logic speaks to Robinson’s pattern of “cut-off-your-nose-to-spite-your face obstinacy.” WRAL writes that “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it,” highlighting that North Carolina “lost out on more than $16 billion in federal dollars” by waiting a decade to expand Medicaid – which Robinson still opposes. “Knowing all of this,” they ask, “why would anyone, particularly those who want to lead North Carolina, want to send MORE of the taxpayers’ money back to be spent in other states?”

As a reminder, Lieutenant Governor Robinson has previously called to “slash” the education budget and said that “cutting the fat” is “essential” because “it has already been proven that school systems get better results on less money”– all while funneling hundreds of millions to private schools. As the Triad City Beat declares: “I’ve had enough.”

So, North Carolina should send the more than $1.7 billion a year that helps educate public school children back to the federal government.

What kind of wisdom is that from Mark Robinson, who wants to be governor and now sits on the state Board of Education, and Michele Morrow, who wants to be state Superintendent of Public Instruction?

The lesson they should have learned from history in North Carolina is not too far in the past – hardly a year.

Over more than a decade, until last December, the legislature’s refusal take federal funds to expand Medicaid came at a huge cost. More than 600,000 North Carolinians were not able to afford basic health care services.

The state lost out on more than $16 billion in federal dollars (taxes that North Carolinians paid) that instead flowed to other states to help their citizens with health care needs. Most significantly, as many as 18,000 North Carolina lives were likely lost due to the inability to access health care services.

“If I had my way about it, they’d send the check and I’d say, ‘Oh, no, you can have it. I don’t want your money. Your money comes with too many rotten obligations. We don’t want it,’” Robinson said. Robinson, as per his usual stump declarations, offered no details on what, if any, federal obligations he was concerned about.

Obligations and taxpayer accountability aren’t of much concern to Robinson when it comes to millions of state taxpayer dollars that flow to private schools in the form of vouchers. Schools that receive funding aren’t even required to show students attend class or that teachers are qualified at the same level as is required of public school teachers.

Those who seek to lead the state and the education of its children must demonstrate that they can learn. That they acknowledge the mistakes of the past and don’t repeat them.

The triumph of partisan politics and rigid ideological bias already came at a huge cost in the decade-long delay in expanding Medicaid.

We cannot let the same tragic fate come at the cost of the state’s school children and their future.

Triad City Beat: EDITORIAL: The Ignoramus Ticket wants to cripple NC schools

Everyone in North Carolina should be ashamed that Robinson and Morrow have risen to such heights, and we should all be alarmed by the specter of them attaining their goals.

Robinson’s sins against decency, justice and the actual law — he’s most recently been accused of falsifying paperwork for his wife’s nonprofit — are well documented. We’re used to his culture war hot takes, like he’s the heel at a wrestling match. But last week the current lieutenant governor of NC decided to say something about policy that gives a clue to the depths of his ignorance as to how government works.

At a private event, Robinson promised that, once elected, he would reject federal funding for our public schools… on principle? Robinson is one of those who thinks we should abolish the federal Dept. of Education. Project 2025 shit.

Like a lot of conservatives who don’t understand money, Robinson failed to address the immediate consequences of this move: a $1.67 billion hole in the education budget , which itself accounts for more than a third of the state’s total expenditures every year — we’re talking teacher’s salaries, early childhood education, sports teams, gas for the buses… it’s expensive to educate children, and remember, too, that the system is underfunded by almost $800 million anyway.

How much longer must we endure these fools, watch the media play it straight when interviewing these reactionaries, pretend that they’re not intent on destroying something vital to our state and upon which more than 1.5 million students and their families rely?

Because I’ve had enough. Haven’t you?

Greensboro News & Record: Our Opinion: Read their lips…less money for schools

And, while some of his greatest hits involve the culture wars, the latest broadside from a man who can’t help but be provocative concerns policy. And we should take it seriously.

Robinson replied that he would refuse school funding from Washington.

“If I had my way about it,” he said, “they’d send the check and I’d say, ‘Oh, no, you can have it. I don’t want your money. Your money comes with too many rotten obligations. We don’t want it.’”

“Honestly, come on,” Robinson added. “There should be no federal Department of Education.

Robinson’s words are likely to get their share of amens in the Party of Trump. The grand plan for Republican rule during a second Trump presidency, Project 2025, expressly calls for the abolishment of the Department of Education, a notion Donald Trump has said he supports.

As a practical matter, turning down federal funds would deal another serious blow to already shamefully underfunded public schools in North Carolina.

And, as is too often the case, it would primarily affect the poorest and most vulnerable students.

$380 million for students with special needs.
$531 for school nutrition programs.
$688 million for lower-income students and high-poverty schools.
$33 million for other programs, including substance abuse and mental health care.
$43 million for career and technical education.

Would Robinson really turn his back on funding for substance-abuse programs, mental health care and career and technical education?

We can only take him at his word.

Such cut-off-your-nose-to-spite-your face obstinacy recalls the GOP’s long resistance to Medicaid expansion, which cost North Carolina billions in both health care dollars and economic impact before the party’s leadership finally agreed to it.

But the real agenda seems to be in the Republican-dominated legislature, which already has removed income restrictions from the state’s private-school voucher program, which originally was billed as a benefit for low-income students that now makes well-off families eligible as well, siphoning even more money from public schools.

The GOP also has rebuffed a decades-old court order to provide adequate funding for the state’s public schools, especially the poorest districts.

It doesn’t take much imagination to see a party that seems hell-bent on slowly starving public schools to death.

Have they no shame?

At this point, do we really need to ask?