North Carolina Lawmaker's Third-Grade Daughter Writes Him Letter To Protest Education Cuts

RALEIGH, N.C. -- A North Carolina lawmaker doesn't think it was right for his daughter and her third-grade class to write to him and other elected officials protesting possible cuts in state education spending.

Republican state Rep. Mike Stone says his daughter asked in her note to "please raise the budget, dad" and help keep two teacher assistants employed.

Republican lawmakers and Democratic Gov. Beverly Perdue are at odds over the budget that is on her desk to either sign or veto.Some in education say the proposed spending plan could eliminate 9,300 positions in the public schools. Republicans have said those numbers are exaggerated.

Lee County Schools Superintendent Jeff Moss told WRAL-TV he didn't see the writing exercise as a problem.

Moss said students in other schools wrote to lawmakers and Perdue.

Comments

[amgnme]

03:10 PM on 06/10/2011

Sorry guys, but I'm going to be the spoiler and tell you how this is going to end.
In a special session (for which all participants will get compensation) he will call for legislation to fire all teachers that encourage students to write letters. That will also include thank you letters to the firemen who came to visit, letters to the local meteorologist asking questions about weather, letters to the high school drama class that performed for them, and letters to community businesses asking for donations (all teacher initiated). The only exception will be teachers who allow students to write letters to Santa; those teachers will face the death penalty.

[twonamegirl]

08:49 AM on 06/10/2011

This is the link to the Lee County School (NC) system website, that has the press release of the events along with copies of the correspondence actually sent to the elected officials. Individual student letters were never sent to the officials, nor individual student names listed.

http://www.lee.k12.nc.us/

[Pollytiques]

02:00 PM on 06/09/2011

Speaking of NC politics. I found this interesting little tidbit this morning in Crooks and Liars. They deserve to be in Crooks and Liars every day.

"Those mischievous scamps, what will they think of next? That’s SB411, also described as the “Elect Pat McCrory” bill.

Since taking over the North Carolina state legislature, the NCGOP has voted to…

1.Shorten the early voting period by a week [HB 658 -- passed the House]
2.Require registered voters to show a photo ID before voting [HB 351 -- passed out of committee in the House, on the House calendar for action today]
3.Eliminate a voter’s choice to vote a straight ticket [SB 411 -- passed the Senate]
There’s more besides, as lawmakers rush through bills ahead of a key procedural deadline. Passage of a bill through either house by Thursday means they can be considered again next year."

[motleyjr]

06:29 PM on 06/08/2011

Cant they get adults to do there dirty work?

[Pollytiques]

03:24 PM on 06/09/2011

Sure they can. The whole legislature does dirty work every day. Oh...BTW..Pat McCrory was born in Ohio. It's just getting impossible to find a Tar Heel in NC politics.

[Ian Sutcliffe]

05:58 PM on 06/08/2011

You're sticking it to students and teachers for perceived "liberal bias" because they're protesting cuts to education? I went to nccommerce.com, a non-partisan economic review of the state. I'll repost verbatim what it reads:
"What Does this Mean for North Carolina Economic Development?
The growth of North Carolina’s economy is predicated on the capabilities of its workforce, and educational attainment is a fundamental way of measuring those capabilities. North Carolina’s educational attainment levels, including conferred science and engineering degrees, rank below the national figures and key benchmark states. This means North Carolina employers could face challenges finding and hiring a highly educated workforce, particularly workers necessary for knowledge-based industries. However, North Carolina’s documented progress suggests that the state’s labor force is improving more rapidly than the nation on average and most benchmark states in many categories. Employers seek locations that produce and attract a highly educated workforce. Continuing to target investment in education will enable North Carolina’s population to move up the educational attainment ladder and continue to attract a workforce that employers seek."
There you have it, not a review by a politician, a review by an economist, stating directly that further investment in education, not budget cuts, is a direct benefit to their state's economy. It really wasn't hard to find this information. I suggest spending your time actually doing research and providing proof rather than hyperbole on the subject before you speak if you want your argument to be considered valid.

[Brett Watters]

01:16 PM on 06/08/2011

The teacher should be fired.

Children aren't political tools. They don't have enough knowledge, experience, or self-determination to form their own opinions on complex economic, social, religious, etc. issues. An eight year-old doesn't know what the budget is, what deficit financing, what teachers salaries are, inflation, etc.

Kids are taught to do what their parents, teachers, priests, etc. say. When you dictate a letter to a group of third-graders they merely copy it. Can you imagine what it would take for an eight year-old to stand up to a teacher and say "No... you are overpaid and with a declining school age population of 2% per year we need fewer teachers."

And the letter is self-serving. It supports a cause which the teacher has. And all the students just happened to "agree" with it?

Would anyone accept their eight year-olds being dictated letters to say the Pope over condom use in Africa? How about making anti-abortion signs? Writing letters to the parol board about their son's release?

Write one to Santa, write one to someone you know, use some generic "I'm writing a letter for my class assignment." to your governor, etc. If this teacher wants me to believe that they couldn't come up with an assignment which doesn't involve eight year-olds furthering their own political agendas... then they should be fired for incompetence. Otherwise, they should be fired for using a child to mouth their political opinions.

[Schoolgal]

11:06 AM on 06/08/2011

Writing letters is part of any school curriculum--friendly letters, business letters and yes, letters of persuasion. Of course he can always send his child to a ring-wing school where she will write only letters that conform to his agenda.

He should be proud to have a daughter who expresses herself, even if it's against his own opinion. Any letter that would help her school is not unethical. It shows school spirit! It would be nice on his part to respond to every letter. The kids will get such a kick out of it and it would be nice for children to know they have been heard, even if the recipient disagrees.

[cypress40]

09:58 AM on 06/08/2011

The superintendent should be fired. It is unethical for teachers to be political in school and having the students write these letters as an assignment is totally inappropriate. If teachers want to tell students that budget cuts are occurring, that is fine. If they want to say that citizens can write letters to their congressmen, that is also fine. But they should not be telling the students what to write about in the letter, and yes, Mike Stone's daughter was put in an awkward position. This type of action by a teacher does not help the public image of teachers, results in more home schooling, and accusations that teachers are all liberals. How can we argue for more funding for teachers when this happens?

[eceresa]

01:14 PM on 06/08/2011

Apparently, some people will always be able to come up with an excuse why we can't argue for more funding for teachers (which, in case we're forgetting, means more funding for students).

[Princess Allie]

07:28 PM on 06/08/2011

Why aren't the taxpayers demanding paycuts for those that hold government offices? Why should I care if jantors, teacher aides or other public employees are laid off, but if you want to start with teachers I want to start with over inflated senators and congressmen and the presidents budget. I hope more parents and wake up and realize as tax payers we are being robbed by government, schools, and banks. Why doesn't the newspaper print out each year how much pension payments are being paid out to those that were higher up on their political careers? Teachers don't pay into social security or medicare so taxpayers have to pay their health insurance after they retire. Why? Why do we need to pay retirement benefits for those that worked in the public workfield for 20 years regardless if they are 40 or if they are 65. I know where we can start the budget cuts, no bank bailouts, cut government pay, cut the occupation cost of our troops being in forgein countries, cut forgein aide, cut taxcuts for corporate farmers, cut the war budget bring our boys home.

[braymanthomas]

03:45 AM on 06/08/2011

Points to ponder
Texas is such a big customer for text books that publishers have geared their books to that states standards for many years.
Texas has a text book review board made up of conservative Republican Christians.
Education is has been dumbed down and our schools are falling behind the rest of the world.
Obviously the problem is Texas.
Lets demand that text books be upgraded from the failed Texas standards.

[Princess Allie]

07:34 PM on 06/08/2011

Sorry I live in Texas and my daughter goes to a blue ribbon elementary school. If people are being dumbeed down here it's because of lack of parental involvement ie illegals don't know english. My daughter started kindergarten knowing her abcs and came back knowing how to read. Not because she went to school but because as parents we worked with her with reading the books she takes home and encouraging her to learn.

[pete39]

01:37 AM on 06/08/2011

This is what they are teaching in school today?

How about a little on self reliance?
How about a little English?
Math? Science?

The teacher and principle who pushed the kids to do this should be imprisoned for child abuse. These kids are going to grow up with the burden of guilt over this no matter what happens.

And all the other teachers should be de-unionized.

I don't have any degrees, but I bet I can teach the third grade more of what they need to know to guarantee their own success than the current crop of whiners there now!

[Thorinn]

01:50 AM on 06/08/2011

Having Elementary students send letters to their representatives isn't anything new. It's been going on for several years. My school even did something similar when I was about that age. The only reason this is a headline, or an issue, is because a lawmaker's child was involved. It wouldn't have made news otherwise.

[sydneymoon]

06:20 AM on 06/08/2011

"How about a little on self reliance?"
This is the parents' job first. It is already encouraged and nurtured in the classroom setting.

"How about a little English?
Math? Science?"
All of these subjects are being taught.

"The teacher and principle who pushed the kids to do this should be imprisoned for child abuse."
Hyperbolic.

" I don't have any degrees, but I bet I can teach the third grade more of what they need to know to guarantee their own success than the current crop of whiners there now!"
My suggestion would be to start with the word 'principal', not principle.

[matt emerson]

12:37 AM on 06/08/2011

The real question here is this-who decided to make this a public issue? Do you think that just possibly the school system or the teacher decided to leak this to the press? There is no doubt that there is an agenda being pursued here. Personally I find it despicable that anyone would use a third grader as a pawn in a political agenda to attempt to humiliate her own father. This just shows me how low the "progressives" will go to try to push their agenda on others. If the child were told to write a letter to a "progressive" parent who was a legislator about how abortion is killing babies and the murder should be stopped I am sure that these same people supporting this girl would be screaming for the teacher to be fired. Amazing how that works when it is put in that perspective isn't it?

[hnh818]

12:22 AM on 06/08/2011

I personally think Rep. Mike Stone is incorrect. He placed his daughter in the public education system and this is a public education issue. Kids should be taught about civics at an early age. It teaches them do be involved in what's going on in the world around them. He was elected to a public office by the public. His daughter(although note old enough to vote) has the legal right and responsibility to question our elected leaders, regardless if it hurts their feelings. If the fire's too hot, get out of the kitchen. I give kudos to his daughter for having her own opinion and standing up to her father with it. Way to go kid!!!!!

[pete39]

01:41 AM on 06/08/2011

Teaching kids at that age to throw group temper tantrums is NOT civics lessons! If his daughter has the "right and responsibility" who is the adult in the area?

You people never fail to amaze me! How the he!! can you expect a child with 10, 12, 15 year of life experience to have a better handle on life than the 30 or 40 year old?

You abdicate YOUR responsibility to protect and educate children when you dump too much on them at too early an age. You deprive them of their childhood.

[sjj734]

02:20 AM on 06/08/2011

Depends on which 30 - 40 year olds you are comparing them to. Reading your posts on this issue, you shouldn't be talking about 'temper tantrums'.

[Freidhiem]

09:35 AM on 06/08/2011

30-40 year olds look at todays world through yesterdays eyes. The younger generation is just looking out for itself, just as the older one is.

[nationswitness]

02:37 AM on 06/08/2011

I agree with everything you say in terms of teaching our children about their civic duty and being involved in the world. Done in a proper way, it could have been a wonderful learning experience; however, the way it was done smacks of manipulation. You're giving kudos to a third-grader for having her own opinion, but how do you know it was her opinion? This news article, like so many here at HP, is so scantily written that no one knows how her opinion was formed. It's doubtful that the children were treated/subjected to a debate on education funding cuts. Instead, the adults at school told them that two teacher assistants were going to get fired.

So his daughter may have formed her opinion on hearsay and propaganda. Now that I think about it, that's about 75% of American voters.

[eceresa]

01:17 PM on 06/08/2011

Are you arguing that other people can't know that what the girl wrote was her opinion, but you can know it wasn't?

Are you arguing that the fact of layoff notices and shrinking budgets is "propaganda"? This is one of those "Reality has a liberal bias" things, isn't it?

[hnh818]

07:41 AM on 06/10/2011

Ok people:

Since we have entered into a debate over something that is totally off of the subject, I have decided to propose this:
Go to your local school...doesn't matter the grade. VOLUNTEER for at least one quarter. After you witness what happens, then come back and share your opinions. I volunteer at all four of our schools and I can tell you this is just not right. These kids deserve better. In my sons high school science class, there aren't even enough books to go around. We are not in the big city, but we are not in the boondocks either. Due to the fact that we are a military family, our children have been in schools all over the world. Civilian and DOD(Dept. of Defense). I can tell you first had that there were times I was embarrassed to say my children have been in the American Public School System. As with all military, we are very proud of our country for the most part. But, we(Americans) are pretty infamous for saying one thing and doing another....and this is one of those things. So, please people, get to the story behind the story. We need to do better for our kids. If we don't, who will?????

[sidnee]

10:14 PM on 06/07/2011

I wonder how angry conservatives would be if the teacher had the kids write a letter demanding that prayer be included in schools? I'm sure THAT would be an ok thing for the teacher to encourage the kids to do --and it wouldn't be considered inappropriate or political at all--right?

[ProudTObeLIBERAL5554]

10:22 PM on 06/07/2011

Exactly right! F&F.....they whine about a legitimate writing campaign to not cut the education budget but stand behind trying to force their religious agenda on our kids by forcing prayer, saying God in the Pledge of Allegiance, teaching creationism and having kids take vows of chastity...I don't care what the religious right does in the privacy of their homes but am sick of them trying to tell the rest of us how to live in ours.

[McKayla]

12:11 AM on 06/08/2011

Say what you want about the rest (some things I agree with, and some I absolutely don't), but I take offence at the reference to the Pledge of Allegiance. It is NOT a religious oath. The word "God" in the pledge refers to the beliefs of the early founders of this nation, not a conservative attempt to force religion on anyone. You are perfectly free to not say "God" as long as you don't shut up anyone who wants to say it... same with prayer. Freedom of speech, am I correct?

[RLA Bruce]

12:33 AM on 06/08/2011

Typical libs: Hiding behind children who have no clue what the issues are about and are indoctrinating them to adhere to the liberal viewpoint. No opting out, of course. If you aren't a liberal robot, something is wrong with you and you will be suspended or expelled until your thinking is "correct".

The best teacher I ever had never taught a liberal or conservative viewpoint. He taught critical thinking in 5th grade. He gave examples of bias from the sports pages of newspapers. Winners paper says, "Home team wins easy victory", while the headline of the same game in the losers' newspaper says, "Home team just misses tournament play."

Very few people look for the slant in news items, especially political news. And there is ALWAYS a slant, left and right, in ALL news. How many of you look for the slant? It's easier to decide the other side are a bunch of morons.

By the way, my slant is conservative because conservatism is the correct (closer to the truth) viewpoint much more often than the left.

[Freidhiem]

09:38 AM on 06/08/2011

Conservatism is lazy and misguided.

[eceresa]

01:21 PM on 06/08/2011

"If you aren't a liberal robot, something is wrong with you and you will be suspended or expelled until your thinking is "correct.'" [sic]

"The best teacher I ever had never taught a liberal or conservati­ve viewpoint. He taught critical thinking in 5th grade."

"By the way, my slant is conservati­ve because conservati­sm is the correct (closer to the truth) viewpoint much more often than the left."

Finding these three quotes together in the same post is comedy GOLD.

[Gwynnerae]

08:36 PM on 06/07/2011

All you liberal foot soldiers have missed the point-what a surprise. The teacher used the writing assignment to press her own agenda and has doubtless taught these children nothing about the valid arguments for limiting funding. The teachers union protect TEACHERS, not your children. And reducing funding when states are in financial trouble is the responsible thing to do. Liberals who think the government has endless resources don't seem capable of understanding this. There are plenty of places to cut spending and still have quality education. You may have to reduce administration or frills but it is certainly possible. With all the money thrown at our kids education we still aren't doing as well as people who spend a lot less. This teacher should be ashamed of using her students as political pawns. And you morons who think the child actually thinks her Dad is wrong don't know much about kids. That teacher should be reprimanded for putting the child in this position.

[bessielil]

09:53 PM on 06/07/2011

You don't know much about schools and budgets. You do know how to be insulting if people disagree with you. For a third grader, losing a classroom aide (a good one) is a real loss. Loss of attention, tutoring, arbitrating. Classroom aides work for a pittance, often only for health benefits. It's a very false saving. Aides are the unsung heroes in schools.

People have been demanding cuts in the alleged fat in school budgets since the early 80s. We've lost programs and electives that kept students in school to explore their unique talents. The laws that govern special education often require an expenditure PER student per year, the salary of a teacher who might educate twenty kids. Look at some other reasons for bashing schools.

On the one hand people insist we are not providing a quality education; on the other hand we keep cutting funding to aid education.

[RLA Bruce]

12:50 AM on 06/08/2011

Used to be there was ONE teacher, FORTY kids, and NO Aides. The kids then were educated well beyond levels of achievement the schools brag about today. Don't believe me? Find the material from any grade school of 60 years ago, then compare it with what is considered "education" in the current curriculum. Omitting current information not known back then, college graduates of today would have trouble with the history, math, science and english that 5th-graders were expected to know 60 years ago. Hell's bells, they're lucky if they can even read a sentence correctly, let alone diagram it! ("What's diagram?" /s)

It's a deliberate dumbing-down of our population, but you're pissing and moaning about the money when it isn't a money issue.

[nationswitness]

02:48 AM on 06/08/2011

I agree with you nearly 100%. Teacher friends of mine work hard and spend a lot of their own money to buy supplies for their kids. I believe that more money on the front end with the children will save money down the line when we don't have to put them in prison, so I write my lawmakers about it. But I feel the same way about this as I do about parents taking their children with them to protests (about anything), giving them a sign or telling them what to say on their signs, and letting them be around yelling adults. At that age, there are appropriate ways to get our children involved in improving the world. This was not one of them.

[Sebastian Lombardo]

09:55 PM on 06/07/2011

And you conservative idiots jump to the conclusion that the children were told what position to take or even what to write.

And for the record, I'm a moderate.

[RLA Bruce]

01:03 AM on 06/08/2011

One sees the position they were told to take by the statement in the article "to write to him and other elected officials protesting possible cuts in state education spending."

Nothing in the article about the children's letters on the need to balance the state budget, or excessive current spending levels. So only one viewpoint was presented to the children. If I'm wrong, be sure to let us all see the children's letters done with a conservative viewpoint, won't you?

[nationswitness]

02:56 AM on 06/08/2011

I'm also a moderate. So, and I'm seriously asking, where do you think the children got the idea to write their legislators?

[Cathy Moore Casper]

08:10 PM on 06/07/2011

I so love this! Mike Stone is my representative in Raleigh and he is a total tea bag! Good for this teacher. Man, I am going to have to find out who did this and what school and make a donation myself!! Good for them!! HAHA! Mike Stone!! Loved your hateful email to me the other day! Oh, I didn't vote for him. He replaced a very good man and representative.

[DoctorWhoDat]

11:33 PM on 06/07/2011

Tea Bag or "D" Bag?