The recent North Carolina state budget proposal cuts funding for teacher assistants except for kindergarten and first grade. This loss of over 3,000 assistants is “in exchange” for hiring 1,800 more teachers. While more teachers is obviously a good thing, with almost 2,300 public schools in North Carolina, it will not come close to making up for the loss of elementary assistants.

In addition, last year the legislature imposed a requirement starting next year that 3rd graders not be promoted unless they are reading at grade level, and this session it is proposing to lift restrictions on class size in K-3. Without teaching assistants, this will create a disastrous learning environment.

Last, and certainly not least, is safety. Recent events have shown that one of the best ways to protect our students is to have well-informed, vigilant adults on site. Reducing the number of teaching assistants reduces the number of people watching our children and is not consistent with a goal of keeping our schools safe.

As members of the CMS community, we strongly oppose cutting the number of teacher assistant positions because these assistants are vital to the success of our students, teachers, and schools.

More information can be found here:

http://www.wsoctv.com/news/news/local/mccrorys-budget-plan-eliminates-3000-teacher-assis/nWzqb/​

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/03/20/3928761/mccrory-budget-would-add-pre-kindergarten.html