Hagan, Tillis spar on education

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story said that Thom Tillis helped increase North Carolina education spending by 5.2 percent, or $660 million, but it was a 9.2 percent increase. The story has been updated to reflect this. The Daily Tar Heel apologizes for the error.

With less than five weeks until one of the closest U.S. Senate elections comes to a close, incumbent Sen. Kay Hagan and Republican challenger Speaker Thom Tillis have traded more than a few blows on education policy.

Hagan has been attacking Tillis over state budget cuts to public education made during his tenure as Speaker of the House as well as comments he made in April about eliminating the U.S. Department of Education.

But in response to Hagan’s accusations over state budget cuts to education, Meghan Burris, spokesperson for the Tillis campaign, said Tillis has not cut education funding at all.

In his four years as a state lawmaker, she said, Tillis has helped engineer an average teacher pay increase of 7 percent, in addition to increasing overall spending on public education by 9.2 percent, or $660 million .

Still, these numbers do not take into account higher education funding, said UNC education professor Eric Houck in an email. Public universities in North Carolina have lost nearly $500 million in state support since 2011.

Additionally, Houck said, the state has cut funding to K-12 staff development, literacy coaches, school technology, mentor teachers and textbooks.

“You can talk about top line numbers all you like, but the proof of the pudding in educational spending is dollars allocated per pupil, since the pupil count changes every year,” Houck said. “Since 2009, the state has grown by about 44,000 students (at the K-12 level), and per pupil spending has decreased by about $130, even though the total amounts of funding has increased.”

During the Republican Senate primary debate in April, a member of the audience asked the candidates which federal department they would prefer to eliminate and why.

“I think going back to Common Core, I’d?start looking at?the Department of Education,” Tillis said in April. “That’d be the first priority when I become Senator. Clawing back the regulations?and at some point wonder whether it even needs to exist in its current form.”

While Tillis’ answer was the Department of Education, Burris said, he never explicitly stated that he would plan to eliminate it.

One of Tillis’ promises is to examine the department for excessive spending, Burris said, since bureaucrats earn over $100,000 a year on average in the department. Hagan has stood firm in her support for the federal agency.

During her term as senator, Hagan has backed the School Turnaround and Rewards Act, a bill aiming to reward schools for making progress by closing student achievement gaps, and she has also supported a bill allowing students to refinance their college loans, said Chris Hayden, spokesperson for the Hagan campaign.

“Last year, Kay was part of the movement that made sure that student loan rates would not double,” he said.

Hagan has also taken aim at Tillis’ 7 percent raise for teachers, calling it unequal because veteran teachers barely received a salary increase.

Houck said while the pay raises were not evenly distributed among teachers, any increase is helpful, given that the state ranked 46th in the nation for teacher pay. Republican leaders have said the raise would boost North Carolina to 32nd.

“It is undeniable that Tillis shepherded a teacher raise through the N.C. (General Assembly).”

state@dailytarheel.com