Charlotte-Mecklenburg educator Justin Parmenter on public education funding and the May Day rally

Thousands of North Carolina public school teachers and their supporters converged on Raleigh this past Friday to demand that state lawmakers end their chronic lack of support for public schools. That the participants in the “Kids over Corporations” rally had a strong case to make is hard to deny. Their event took place just days after a new report placed North Carolina 46th in the nation for teacher pay for the current school year — down three spots from last year — and 39th in the nation for per pupil spending.

One expert who was there on Friday, knows the ins and outs of state education policy like the back of his hand, and indeed, lives it every day, is Charlotte-Mecklenburg 7^th grade language arts teacher Justin Parmenter. And prior to the rally, Parmeter joined NC Newsline to talk about the urgent needs he sees in our schools and why he hopes so fervently that state leaders will listen and act.

In Part One of our recent conversation, we discussed the increasingly dire situation that confronts the public schools in our state and why it’s essential that state lawmakers heed the demands of educators by dramatically improving public education funding.

In Part Two of our chat, we continued our discussion of the need to better fund teacher pay in particular and public schools generally. We also discussed a pair of high-profile policy priorities of the political right – immigration enforcement and private school vouchers – that have only served to further undermine the stability, mission and morale of traditional public schools.

Click here to listen to the full interview with middle school teacher Justin Parmenter.