ICYMI: Poor education, quality of life grades drive NC down in CNBC business survey
General Assembly’s lack of concern for public education keeping potential jobs out of North Carolina
RALEIGH — North Carolina dropped four spots in CNBC’s 2018 rankings of the best states for businesses, with CNBC reporting that “underfunded schools are infringing on success” in North Carolina thanks to lawmakers who refuse to make meaningful improvements to classroom funding in our state. CNBC slapped a grade of “D” on North Carolina for education and “D+” for quality of life after Republicans in the NC General Assembly refused to fully repeal the HB2 “bathroom bill” without conditions.
The bad grades couldn’t have come at a worse time for the Tar Heel state, which is in the midst of a recruiting battle for the Amazon HQ2 project and its 50,000 jobs as well as a planned new corporate campus and 10,000 jobs from Apple.
Already burdened by the legacy of the “bathroom bill” HB2 which inflamed personal rights advocates in 2016 and remains a sore spot despite being repealed in 2017, North Carolina took a hit on its reputation within the CNBC survey that rated states across 10 categories.
“The politicians in Raleigh have made it clear that they would rather give tax cuts to millionaires than adequately fund our public schools,” said Gerrick Brenner, executive director of Progress NC Action. “Public schools are suffering as a result of politicians prioritizing tax cuts for the rich over students and teachers. The effect is to make our state less attractive for companies like Amazon or Apple which want a good system of public education for their employees.”
