The Top 13 Must Ask Questions for Legislative Candidates

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Be an informed Education Voter. Find out where candidates stand on education issues.

We surveyed education advocates and researchers, parents, teachers and students all over our state about the public education issues they believe are critical to supporting and strengthening public education. Participants were most concerned about the teacher shortage/pipeline, about making our public schools more equitable, and about the impacts of privatization policies on our public schools.

We summarized the issues they listed as important to public education in the questions below.

Top Thirteen Must Ask Questions for Legislative Candidates

  • Does your plan to help high-poverty schools and students include raising the per-pupil expenditures to the national average?
  • Does your plan for teacher recruitment and retention include raising teacher pay to the national average?
  • Do you support a moratorium on school vouchers?
  • Do you support reinstating a cap on charter schools?
  • Do you support local school districts being responsible for authorizing and overseeing charter schools in their district?
  • Do you support restoring Master’s pay & giving teachers due process rights?
  • Do you support raising principal pay and basing it on experience?
  • Do you support restoring class size caps for grades 4 and 5?
  • Do you support providing a statewide construction bond to help pay for the growing backlog of K-12 school construction ($8B + across NC)?
  • Do you support providing high-speed internet & devices to all students who need these tools to access virtual learning?
  • How will you promote the desegregation of our schools?
  • Do you support a more equitable grading system for schools?
  • Do you support keeping guns off school grounds and out of classrooms?

BONUS Question: Do you support fully funding the Leandro ruling to fulfill the recommendations of the Comprehensive Remedial Plan and the related action steps?

Candidates can take our Education Position Questionnaire and we’ll post their responses on our website.