Womack Control Of Schools

Displaying Sharpe with the Womack-endorsed Board of Education slate beside the Womack candidates for county commission  validated a claim by the opposition that Womack wanted to control "the activities of the school system." That would be a tremendous advantage to the commissioners in a process that deliberately establishes shared responsibility for the level of funding for the pubic schools.  As a commissioner who justifies any action, even unlawful ones, by saying he is defending the taxpayers interest, Womack's desire to radically reduce local spending on  public education is no secret.

The North Carolina Constitution requires the government to provide "sound basic education". 

Local school boards adopt a budget for operating the schools in areas not appropriated by the legislature. Although teachers' basic salaries are paid by the state, most other costs of the schools are a local responsibility. These include: buildings, furniture, and equipment; books and other supplies; maintenance; and utilities. Many local school systems also pay teachers a salary bonus. The local school board decides how much it needs to spend to support the local schools. Then it presents this budget to the board of county commissioners. The county commissioners decide how much county money to spend to support local schools. This is often a matter of much discussion and sometimes contentious activities,  especially in Lee County.  Insufficient school appropriations may be taken by the Board of Education to court or a public referendum .  One of the court's options is to order the county commissioners to provide additional funds to the schools.

Control of the Board of Education would ensure that budget requests would stay within the bounds set by Wormack, a prospect that concerns those who believe a strong educational system is essential to economic growth, especially since the Womack crowd would like to surplus the  laptops in order to buy chalk slates as seen on Little House On The Prairie.

See Post 1 and 2

1. Cameron Sharpe Gets Off Message

2. Misguided Bullet: No To Teachers First

Back to Lee Dispatch original post

Most Costly Ad of This Election