Randy Watson and Sexual Chocolate!

Sorry, but according to the state budget, the children are not our future. At least the teachers to lead those children are not a priority. Just a few numbers to mull over:

K-12 SCHOOLS
- reduce textbook allotment due to delay in new math books for grades 6-12: -$38 million.
- reduce funding for school district administrative offices: -$6.5 million.
- transfer More at Four early education program to Department of Health and Human Services: -$86 million.
- discretionary reduction for local school districts: -$7.8 million.
- eliminate funding for several state-administered standardized tests for students not currently required by federal law or grants: -$3.6 million.
- reduce staff development money by 50 percent: -$6.3 million.
- eliminate funding for activities designed to improve performance for poorly performing students: -$38.4 million.
- decrease money for teacher salaries while increasing average class sizes by two students: -$322.7 million.
- order State Board of Education to eliminate 100 positions at the Department of Public Instruction: -$5.4 million.
- support 12 early-college high schools opening in 2009-10 school year: $3.7 million.
- fund dropout prevention grants: $1 million.
- create new standard course of study, consider replacing existing standardized tests and pilot diagnostic tests to identify strengths and weaknesses of individual students: $3 million.
- suspend transfer of corporate income tax funds to Public School Building Capital Fund: -$60.5 million.
- expand North Carolina Virtual Public School, which lets student take classes online: $2 million.

In case you were counting, that's right, $575.2 Million in cuts. If you want to look at some more info it is readily available at MYNC.com.

Not to get ahead of myself, I'm sure that there are proposals and maybe even some budget increases not included in the list compiled by MYNC.com...yet, this is not a good start. Let's make something happen, even if that is simply making some noise. Let that noise be a call of the action to come. So I'll sit here in my chair and type as loud as I can and hope someone hears these keystrokes in Raleigh.