Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson told Republican group that NC’s public schools need to be defunded

Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson told a Wake County Republican group in December 2023 that he believes our state’s woefully underfunded public schools are being given too much money, according to audio of his speech obtained by The News & Observer.

Robinson told the East Wake Republican Club that “it has already been proven that school systems get better results on less money,” and that “cutting the fat” out of the education budget would be “essential.”

Robinson serves on the State Board of Education and should know firsthand just how dire a situation our public education system is in, thanks to the failures of Republican legislators: North Carolina spends $5,000 less per student than the national average (48th in the nation), spends less of its Gross State Product on public education than every other state (last in the country) and ranks 46th in beginning teacher pay. A new teacher in North Carolina can expect to earn less than the minimum living wage and an average salary that falls nearly $12,000 below the national average, according to the Public School Forum of North Carolina. Facts don’t seem to matter to the lieutenant governor, though.

“Our education budget is fine right where it is,” Robinson said. “We don’t need more dollars, we need to redirect dollars.”