EDUCATION
and
Retain
Recruit
Who we place in our schools has a direct impact on not only the success of our students but their communities at-large. Affecting students positively and expanding their outcomes and opportunities should be one of our county’s highest priorities.
That is why Mecklenburg County must be laser-focused on recruiting and retaining the best and brightest educators and support staff that we can.
I will work to strengthen the bonds of friendship between the board and the schools of education at our local colleges and universities, and the people can count on me to be one of the five votes needed to secure adequate funding for CMS and CPCC.
Adequately Fund
Adequate funding is critical to the success of our mission to expand and advance the opportunities of our youth. Since the great recession, the Republican-led legislature has cut over $400-million dollars from public education and that includes K-university. There is a direct assault on public education, which has been coined as the great equalizer.
We need to fund the “great equalizer”, provide support services for students who are falling through the cracks, and expand academic opportunities in every corridor, ward, district, and zip code.
This past summer, I stood alongside the Mecklenburg delegation to the North Carolina General Assembly calling on our Legislature to fund the remedial plan laid out in the Leandro lawsuit. The General Assembly has failed its constitutional obligation to provide a sound basic education to North Carolina’s future, and it's time that we come together to fight for this common cause.
Partnership
The County Commission is not the only body which can positively impact the success of our children and our schools. City Council zonings, state maintenance of roads, and our localities who work in economic development can impact the growth and overcrowding of schools, not to mention exacerbate the limited resources our schools operate on.
All government entities must go through due process (bid process) for major builds, but private developers do not. That is why one team can build 100 townhomes/condos in nine (9) months whereas it takes an average of six (6) years to gain approval, plan, bid, and build out a school.
We need smart managed growth which not only helps CMS, but also Charlotte Water, state and local Departments of Transportation, and our first responders at Charlotte Fire and CMPD and in our towns better equip themselves to handle the influx of 100 (average) new residents every day.