NC's Perdue, Obama official push for school funds

By EMERY P. DALESIO

DURHAM, N.C.

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan and two top North Carolina Democrats warned that without federal funds, thousands of teachers would be laid off in the coming weeks.

The jobs of 10,000 North Carolina teachers are at risk among 300,000 nationwide, Duncan said, as recession-hit state and local governments struggle to meet requirements to balance their budgets. Layoffs seem likely without federal support, Duncan said during a visit to Durham's Southern High School with Gov. Beverly Perdue and U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge, D-N.C.

Duncan and Etheridge said Thursday that a $23 billion education jobs fund proposed in Congress was needed to keep teachers in the classroom and off the unemployment rolls at a time the economy remains fragile.

"We are strongly urging Congress to take action and take action this month," Duncan said. "I don't have a Plan B. Plan B is children around the country are going to get hurt."

A spokesman for the state Republican Party did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

With billions more in federal education dollars at stake, Perdue and others lobbied Duncan to note the state's efforts to claim a share of the U.S. Education Department's "Race to the Top" grants.

"Race to the Top came up frequently" during the meeting that also included state schools superintendent June Atkinson, said state said Sen. Floyd McKissick Jr., D-Durham, who said he also attended.

North Carolina missed out in March when Tennessee and Delaware won $600 million in grants to improve failing schools in the first round of competition for the "Race to the Top." The Education Department plans to award the remaining $3.4 billion to 10 to 15 states in September.

Duncan noted that at about the time he was visiting Durham, the State Board of Education was adopting national standards for math and English for public school students. The final version of the education benchmarks were only released Wednesday.

"Wow!" Duncan said, holding up a newspaper describing the state school board's impending vote.

States are expected to use the standards to revise their curriculum and tests to make learning more uniform across the country, eliminating inequities in education between states and among districts. The uniform set of expectations represent the first time states have agreed to establish what students should know by the time they graduate high school.

Perdue said the state school board's vote was not scheduled with Duncan's visit in mind.