F. K–12 EDUCATION
Education is a basic, individual right and an utter necessity to the community's civic health. Education should be free and available to all.
We support the separation of church and state in public education and oppose direct funding of private schools, including "vouchers."
We oppose the growing dependency of public school systems and higher education on private funding and call for increased public funding of this basic civil right and prime public investment.
State and local government and school districts should also act to correct existing imbalances in facilities, equipment, and teacher-student ratios among schools of single districts and between districts.
- The state should move in the direction of full public financing of preschool education to make preschool available to all state residents.
- Because the public schools are a public trust and a public asset, they should be supported by public taxes.
All citizens, regardless of where they send their own children to school, have a direct interest in an educated society.
- Private and parochial schools are a consumer choice and one that should not be funded by public tax money.
- State funding of primary and secondary education should be sufficient to negate the importance of federal funding in school district budgets.
The whims of federal legislators should not adversely affect public education in North Carolina.
Federal power grabs through carrot- and-stick funding offers could likewise be ignored if state funding were adequate.
- Grading, assessment and standardized examinations should be thoroughly studied and reevaluated.
- Families and students need to be free to choose from a wide array of educational approaches.
- Student-teacher ratios should be no more than 15 to 1 in kindergarten through 3rd grade and 20 to 1 in all other grades.
- School districts should explore alternatives to suspension, including academically focused day-treatment centers.