The Mycenaean

 

As the 2024 General Election quickly approaches, many important federal and state positions are up for reelection. The North Carolina State Superintendent of Public Instruction is no different. 

 

The NC State Superintendent of Public Instruction oversees the public school system and sits on the NC Board of Education. The position focuses on improving the current system and providing opportunities for students to learn, grow, and succeed in the future. 

 

While this position might seem unimportant in the current election climate, the candidate elected as superintendent could have the greatest impact on North Carolina students.

 

If you are a student reading this, think about your life. What does your day-to-day life revolve around? Where do you spend the most time? What aspect of your life consumes your brain the most? 

 

If you answered school like me, whoever is elected as Superintendent will have some impact on the most important aspect of your life. The future of our education is in the hands of the man or woman our state elects on November 5. 

 

Many students can’t vote yet, but that doesn’t mean we can’t educate ourselves on who is representing our education. Before writing this article I had only heard these names, but after researching their vastly different platforms I’ve come to understand how their policy could affect our lives. 

 

Mo Greens Platform

Green graduated from Duke University with a bachelor’s degree in political science and economics, and law. In a detailed platform, Green outlines what he thinks are the most important pillars of our school system, and his plans to improve each pillar. 

 

Each pillar is presented and explained, followed by “action items”. For seven years Green served as superintendent of Guilford County Schools — the third largest district in North Carolina. He was the executive director of the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, an organization focused on supporting public education. 

 

Green’s areas of focus are as follows:

 

Pillar 1: “Prepare Each Student for their Next Phase in Life”

• Green seeks to make public school a place where students learn to think critically and develop vital soft skills to prepare for their future after graduation. To do so Green wants to enhance K-3 literacy programs, individualize learning, and increase access to high-quality preschool education.  

Pillar 2: “Invest Fully in Public Education”

• According to data the Green platform presents, NC public schools invest one of the lowest amounts of money into each student. Green wants to directly fund educators and streamline financial systems that invest more resources into public education.  

Pillar 3: “Revere Public School Educators”

• By supporting coaching programs for new teachers, advocating for improved work conditions, and increasing teacher pay Green hopes NC public schools reflect the respect teachers and staff deserve. 

Piller 4: “Enhance Parent and Community Support”

• Greens wants to implement listening sessions and collaborations with parent-teacher organizations, so that parent voices are heard in the Department of Public Instruction. He also strives to improve support staff in schools because statistically, students learn better when they have a community of people looking out for their success. 

Pillar 5:“Ensure Safe, Secure Learning Environments”

• Green is passionate about making the school environment safer for students to learn. While he wants to implement higher security standards for schools he also wants to increase funding for mental health programs to promote positive behavior. 

Piller 6: “Celebrate the Good in Public Education”

• Green argues that while there is room for our public schools to improve, we should still celebrate all the amazing things our schools have to offer. His goal is to foster a joyful and positive environment where students find a love for learning. 

Read Green’s full platform here.

 

Michele Morrows Platform  

In Morrow’s platform, she outlines her plan to “restore North Carolina’s promise.”

Morrow has developed her campaign to focus on improving academic achievement and civility in public schools. Morrow graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill with a nursing degree, and for years, she worked in the ICU and ER. In the past decade, she took to homeschooling her children and helped other families homeschool their kids. 

 

See Morrow’s areas of concern below;

Safe schools 

• Morrow feels offering mental health services is not enough to promote school safety. Instead, she supports fair disciplinary policies that promote classroom civility. She pushes for more funding and trained officers in high-priority districts to reduce crime. 

Academics first 

• Morrow states there is a literary crisis in k-12 education, and to combat this she wants to focus funding on core subjects while riding funding for non-academic programs and supplementary studies.

Parent-friendly schools 

• Morrow states that parents are kept in the dark when it comes to what their child is learning. She feels that children’s academic success requires a partnership between parents and teachers, and students should not be asked about their mental state or sexual orientation at school. She plans to support and enforce the Parents’ Bill of Rights.

American unity and patriotism

• Morrow seeks to celebrate American exceptionalism while promoting fairness, equality, and unity in our schools. She outlines that often students are exposed to one-sided lessons portraying America as a racist and oppressive nation.

Getting DC out of schools

• Morrow wants to reduce the involvement of political interest groups and prevent their programs and political agendas from interfering with education. 

End wasteful spending 

• Morrow wants to decrease spending on social and emotional programs and decrease the amount of supplemental positions in schools (workers who aren’t specifically teachers), so we can invest more in core acumenics like math and English. 

 

Read Morrow’s full platform here.

 

Who is best for NC Public schools?

After thoughtful reading and reflection, Mo Green is the best candidate for state superintendent of public instruction. 

As a student, I want someone qualified to make decisions about my education.

 

Over the years, Mo Green has been a part of various foundations and efforts to improve the quality of public education. Green has also overseen three districts in his career. 

 

Morrow is simply a parent who doesn’t like the current state of our public education because of her political bias. The Superintendent of Public Instruction is supposed to be a non-partisan position, but after viewing her website, it is clear she is campaigning under a political agenda. 

 

She pins Democrats and Republicans on opposing sides of education stating we need to “save our children from the radical left”. She claims she will save students from Democrats who she believes are destroying education. 

 

The negative connotation of her words feeds the political division of our nation. 

 

After reading Morrow’s platform, I was left with more questions than answers. She puts forward bold claims about the current public education system but never provides data to support those claims. 

 

She does not cite her sources. She never shares comforting solutions. Morrow describes a school system I’m not familiar with. 

 

She portrays a system that is ill-prepared to educate me, a system that forces political agenda on me, and a system that shuts my parents out of my learning. 

 

This could not be farther from my experience at Leesville. Morrow perceives a system that has done more harm them good, this powerful rhetoric invokes fear from her constituents.

 

On the contrary, Green’s platform outlines concrete plans to improve public education for all. He is the experienced leader that we need to keep pushing us forward. Looking through Green’s platform I saw a candidate who truly cares about not only about my education but also supporting teachers. 

 

Green understands that a collaborative and engaging school system starts in the classroom because he has been listening to teachers his entire career. 

 

He spent decades dedicating his professional career to improving public education.

 

Green’s platform insights hope for the future of North Carolina schools. He highlights the positive qualities our system has to offer and shares how he thinks our educational opportunities can continue to grow. 

 

I highly encourage all who are registered to get out and vote.  Make the choice to support the best candidate for the future generations of loonies.