Catherine Truitt would reopen North Carolina's public schools. | Stock Photo
Catherine Truitt would reopen North Carolina's public schools. | Stock Photo
Catherine Truitt, the Republican candidate for North Carolina schools superintendent, put reopening schools as her top priority.
She wants to defend the Opportunity Scholarship program. Low-income students receive as much as $4,200 for tuition assistance for the private school of their choice, the Carolina Journal reported on Sept. 30. More than 12,200 students got scholarship help last year.
Her opponent, Democrat Jen Mangrum, said teacher safety is more important.
The state superintendent manages North Carolina’s $10 billion education budget, plus oversight of senior staffing decisions and hundreds of contracts.
During a debate hosted by the N.C. Institute of Political Leadership and Spectrum News NC, the candidates agreed virtual schooling fails some students.
Truitt said Gov. Roy Cooper’s shutdowns made education inequities for students even worse. She criticized how he imposed the same approach to COVID-19 response.
“Absolutely they’re falling behind,” Truitt said of students, the Carolina Journal reported. “We are upholding one form of safety over another when we deny students the ability to return to school. As far as metrics go, what I’d say is that initially, this all became about flattening the curve, and then it became ‘let’s have zero cases.’ The goalpost keeps moving.”
Truitt doesn’t share Republican gubernatorial candidate Dan Forest’s criticism of face masks and agrees with Mangrum on their use at schools.
Mangrum called classrooms unsafe, saying state law describing a teacher’s job puts their welfare first.
The Democrat also blamed inadequate funding for failing public schools, along with the Opportunity Scholarship program.
“The Opportunity Scholarship program is an opportunity for some families who’re low income to escape from neighborhood … schools that have been failing for generations,” Truitt said, the Carolina Journal reported. “I don’t understand how someone can claim that we’re dismantling public education when we’re providing more funding than ever.”
Truitt said the state is at a crossroads in education with COVID-19, shedding light on what’s wrong with the system. North Carolina can’t do the same thing repeatedly, expecting different results, she said.
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