As a product of Asheville City Schools — go Cougars! — and current State House Representative for District 116, my favorite time of year is greeting students, parents, teachers and support staff back to campus after summer break. As I was welcoming students back to school this year, I couldn’t help but recognize the serious challenges facing our public schools, specifically, the lack of fully funding them.
Republicans are pushing for private school vouchers and their state legislators are returning to session with the mission of choking the life and financial viability out of public schools, to the tune of billions of dollars. Republican legislators, time and again, vote to siphon taxpayer money away from public schools to fund private school vouchers for the wealthy.
We know public schools are at the heart of our communities, and elected officials have an obligation to fund them. Having spent the past three years in the General Assembly, advocating for full and equitable funding for our public schools and pushing for higher salaries for public school employees, it’s clear we are at a crossroads in North Carolina. Here in Buncombe County, we have 29 private schools serving roughly 4,700 students compared to 60 public schools where nearly 29,000 children go to learn each day.