Last week the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Education passed its budget recommendation for FY 2010-2011. Given the projected state deficit of more than 800 million dollars, budget writers sought to protect public education from additional cuts wherever possible. Committee Co-chairman Rep. Rick Glazier said during negotiations “We’re trying to use innovative and extraordinary measures to protect the classroom.”

In the end, committee members passed a budget that eliminated all additional cuts to personnel (including teachers, support staff and Assistant Principals) proposed in the Senate and Governor’s budgets. House Appropriations committee Chairman Mickey Michaux declared the budget would spare every teacher position from cuts – “It allows all classroom teachers to keep their jobs.

Education leaders immediately applauded the committee’s budget:

“We appreciate the House’s determined focus to protect K-12 public schools to the extent possible, and we are grateful that many of the previously problematic cuts have been reduced or eliminated.”

- Bill McNeal, executive director of the North Carolina Association of School Administrators (NCASA)

“We applaud the House for making K-12 public education a funding priority in these difficult economic times. This budget says loud and clear that it will not be balanced on the backs of our school children and their teachers. This is a good day for North Carolina’s public schools.”

- Sheri Strickland, President of the North Carolina Association of Educators

“As local boards of education across the state are struggling to provide high quality education in a difficult economic climate, the House version of the budget will assist them in giving the children of this state the necessary tools to compete in the 21st century global economy.”

- Leanne Winner, director of governmental relations for the North Carolina School Boards Association (NCSBA)

Even more important than the approval of state education leaders was the outpouring of gratitude from teachers, principals and parents across the state. Rep. Glazier received thousands of emails like these thanking him for his leadership:

“As a mother of two school aged children I cannot thank you enough for finding the means to save teaching positions. This is an action that not only saves jobs . . . it saves our students!”

“Words can’t really express my gratitude in your hard work on the House budget proposal, I personally commend you as a 6th year Kindergarten teacher. Thank you for standing up for my children and funding them first.”

The budget would save over 1,600 classroom jobs statewide, jobs that would otherwise have been lost. Budget writers accomplished this by appropriating $90 million from the Education Lottery fund, $73 million of which comes from an unexpected increase in revenue from ticket sales. The additional $17 million comes from a one-time transfer from the school construction fund, which would be left at over $130 million.

Rep. Glazier spoke to the use of construction money to save classroom jobs: “In this critical budget year, as we continue to recover from the global economic crisis, we have prioritized people over buildings. We must do everything possible to ensure that as new schools are constructed, our teachers, support personnel and administrators will still be employed and available to staff them.”

Once the full House budget is passed, negotiators from both chambers will begin the work of combining the House and Senate’s proposals. If you’d like to share your thoughts on the budget or any other issue of concern you can email Rep. Glazier directly by clicking here.

You can read the House’s proposed Education budget by clicking here.