The Legislature goofed up big time when it cut the Teaching Fellows program | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This article originally appeared in the Beaufort Observer.

    We don't know of anyone who has advocated more strongly for reduced state spending than have we. And in general we think the Republican-controlled legislature did a good job of doing just that, with some exceptions.

    One of those exceptions was the astounding mistake the Speaker of the House made in increasing his office's payroll at a time when most state departments were having to cut back. There is simply no excuse for that kind of insensitivity.

    Another cut made by the previous Democrat Legislature and carried forward by the Republicans was to cut the tuition scholarships for graduates of the N. C. School of Science and Mathematics. Those students are the top of the class of the best and brightest students we have in North Carolina, and the tuition scholarships to any UNC-system campus was an excellent way of recruiting the best students into the UNC system and helping keep those students in our state for two years after we had educated them. The Class of 2010 was the last to receive these scholarships that should be reinstated as soon as more funds become available.

    But of all the unwise decisions the Legislature made this past session, the worst was to cut the Teaching Fellows program. That program gives top-notch high school students a four-year scholarship on the condition that they teach in the public schools for four years after graduation. It cost about $13.5 million a year to give the 500 new scholarships each year and to continue the previously awarded grants.

    We could write a tome about why the program makes sense, but we believe in the final analysis the truth is that it saves the state money in the long run. But without doubt, it improves the quality of teachers in our schools for less money than nearly anything else that can be done. It is way more productive that "reducing class size" by a student or two in K-3, which is where these same officials decided to spend way more money. And you can also say we said the Teaching Fellows program is way more productive than More at Four or Smart Start.

    We have a nasty suspicion that we know why the Teaching Fellows program was cut. It was a Democrat program and was administered by the Public School Forum, which is a Democrat-dominated nonprofit that has not always been complimentary of the Republican leadership. And to the extent that is the true cause of the cut, it is absolutely disgusting. A perfect case of "cutting off our nose to spite our face."

    We have our differences with the Public School Forum. They push progressive, liberal "jack-in-the box" fixes of our public-education system but that is no excuse for cutting one of the best programs the state has ever developed to improve the quality of teaching in our K-12 schools.

    The truth is we need our best and brightest students to go into teaching. These students have choices. They will be successful at whatever they do and they will be recruited heavily by other job sectors. Both the Science and Math students and the Teaching Fellows should be one of the top priorities of our state and both of these programs should be reinstated with the first available funds.

    Click here to read the N&O story about the program.