Education has become too political, focused on wrong things, outgoing NC superintendent Truitt says
Education has become too political and focused on wrong things, outgoing North Carolina Superintendent Catherine Truitt told a gathering of hundreds of educators and community leaders Tuesday.
Politicians and news media focus too much on buzzwords and hot topics, she said, and they’re missing the point.
Truitt, a Republican who lost her primary reelection campaign in March to right-wing challenger Michele Morrow, was a featured speaker at the annual Eggs & Issues Breakfast, an annual forum hosted by the Public School Forum of North Carolina in Raleigh and attended by educators and community leaders who have influence over the state’s public schools. Truitt spoke harshly of a political climate in which the popular discourse on schools isn’t focused on how to meaningfully improve student performance.
During her speech, she urged people to press their education leaders for detailed, data-driven plans on how to improve test scores and workforce readiness and how to use resources where they’re needed most.
“Education has emerged as a contentious wedge issue in our political discourse,” Truitt said. “Both Democrats and Republicans are using education to appeal to their respective bases, framing campaigns and policies around buzzwords that inspire clicks, and drive donations.”
Truitt also noted the urgency of education issues, as students in many places continue to recover from months of remote learning during the Covid-19 pandemic, in which the pace of learning slowed significantly.
“We are at a critical juncture,” Truitt said. “There's a big election ahead of us. The stakes are high, because we're trying to recover from the greatest disruption to education in our country's history, while the very nature of what it means to be workforce ready is changing by the day. But as someone who has had the privilege to lead public education for the last nearly four years, I want to underscore the need for our leaders to take their eyes off the buzzwords and hot topics that drive news and viral videos.
“This will mean doing away with what sounds good in favor of doing good for students.”
Truitt didn’t name the two main nominees for the superintendent position — Republican Michele Morrow and Democrat Mo Green. But some observers took some of her comments as jabs at Morrow.
As an example of buzzwords, Truitt listed “indoctrination” and “critical race theory,” which refers to studying things through the lens of the impact of systemic racism. Morrow, a former home-school educator who has called public schools “indoctrination centers," has urged people not to send their children to them. She also is a vocal opponent of teaching of critical race theory in schools.
Morrow, who beat Truitt in the GOP primary, declined an invitation to attend the event and also declined an invitation to conduct a recorded virtual question-and-answer session beforehand, according to organizers. A spokeswoman for Morrow’s campaign didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
‘The issues that aren’t shiny’
Education leaders need to show whether they have a “credible chance at executing a coherent long-term vision,” Truitt said. That vision should include issues that don’t go viral on social media, she said.
“It means tackling the issues that aren't shiny, that aren't easily understood, or easily explained, that aren’t popular,” Truitt said.
Some moderate Republicans have spoken out about some of Morrow’s more extreme public comments and social media posts, which — beyond education — have called for a pay-per-view execution of former President Barack Obama, whom she considers a war criminal. She also called for the executions of other prominent Democratic politicians and Microsoft founder Bill Gates and his ex-wife, Melinda French Gates. Morrow accused Bill Gates of planning and funding a global pandemic.
Truitt also took aim at the politicization of the 30-year-old, ongoing Leandro lawsuit over whether schools are adequately resourced, which she also called a buzzword and hasn’t emphasized during her tenure.
“If we only ever ask if they are against school choice, if they are for charters, if they are in favor of Opportunity Scholarships, if they support book banning, if they are against social and emotional learning, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, then we miss the opportunity to hear about the larger plan,” Truitt said.
Some speakers and attendees Tuesday disagreed with Truitt’s characterization of Leandro as a buzzword. During another candidate forum, State Sen. Lisa Grafstein, D-Wake, said the lawsuit is a critical issue that many people care about, a comment that drew applause from the crowd.
Speaking at the event Tuesday, Green said he supported Truitt’s work on improving reading skills among the state’s youngest students and said he hoped to build on that. Green also said he was spurred to run by an issue Truitt characterized as a distraction: The expansion of private school vouchers, also known as Opportunity Scholarships, which are tuition checks the state provides to children who choose to attend a private school. He believes public schools need the money for other things and wants to use the position of superintendent, in part, to urge lawmakers to turn their focus back to public schools.
“I thought, ‘We cannot do this,’” said Green, who is a former superintendent of Guilford County Schools.
Truitt noted her focus on reading proficiency, workforce preparation and changing how schools are held accountable and publicly graded. They were necessary issues but not ones that were driving political debates, she said. Since she worked with lawmakers to overhaul reading curriculum and implement training and coaching on it across the state, K-3 reading scores have risen. The number of workforce credentials students are earning has also risen. Other efforts of Truitt’s — to overhaul teacher licensure and to change how schools are publicly graded — haven’t moved forward.
The race to replace Truitt is believed to be close. Morrow and Green were in a statistical dead heat in the race, according to a WRAL News Poll released in March.
Democrats have sought to highlight Green’s extensive education background, while Morrow’s supporters underscore her role as an outsider agitating for change.
Going into the March primary, Truitt appeared to have the edge over Morrow. She already had years of experience, including most of one term under her belt during which she guided the state’s schools through the post-pandemic years, helping them recover from learning loss faster than many other states and oversaw changes to how reading is taught in classrooms. She had support from Republican leaders and she had out-raised Morrow almost 10-to-1.
But Morrow relentlessly out-campaigned Truitt, political operatives familiar with the campaigns’ strategies told WRAL after the Morrow’s primary upset. Truitt was sidelined in part by her day job of running one of state’s most visible and politically fraught agencies, the Department of Public Instruction, which accounts for more than 30% of the state’s entire budget.
Morrow took time away from working as a property manager to meet with parent groups and conservative groups, selling her message: She doesn’t believe schools need more funding, and she is pushing for uniform student discipline policies and stopping schools from including diversity, equity and inclusion training for staff.
