RALEIGH, N.C. – North Carolina state Sen. Phil Berger has clearly had his fill of the teachers union’s propaganda and misinformation campaign, and he recently penned an editorial to set the record straight.

In an opinion piece published by the News Observer, Berger explains what’s really going on with education in the Tar Heel State. He counters union claims that public schools are massively underfunded, and exposes the hidden motivations of union officials working to mislead the public.

“There are some dishonest but powerful special interests in Raleigh who are forgetting what our public schools are all about. Instead of focusing on the kids, they’re focusing on one thing: money for their union members,” Berger wrote. “The way they talk, you’d think North Carolina schools are not going to open this year because there is no money and all the teachers have been fired.”

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Reality is quite the opposite, he explained.

Republican lawmakers who were overwhelmingly re-elected to the legislature last year voted to spend more on the state’s K-12 public education system than ever before. Roughly $360 million – more than half of the state’s budget – is devoted to education, a 5 percent increase over last year, Berger wrote.

“And North Carolina spends close to $5 billion to provide our state’s teachers a package of salary and benefits worth an estimated $55,264 for 10 months of employment,” according to Berger.

“So what is education all about?” Berger continued. “Is it just about spending money? Is it about growing bureaucracy or guaranteeing employment and generous benefits regardless of performance?

“We believe it’s about teaching our children and empowering them to be productive, successful members of society.”

That’s why, Berger wrote, lawmakers passed the Excellent Public Schools Act, which is aimed at strengthening student literacy, giving parents more information about local schools and teachers, and increasing classroom accountability and rewards for great teachers.

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North Carolina lawmakers are focusing on improving reading comprehension in early grades to better prepare students for more advanced study, according to Berger. They’re implementing a simple A-F school grading system that parents and taxpayers can understand, and they’ve included $10.2 million in this year’s budget for merit pay bonuses for the top 25 percent of the state’s teachers.

Perhaps most important, though, is a legislative efforts to improve the quality of instruction students receive. Guaranteed employment granted through the long-outdated teacher tenure system resulted in only 17 of 97,184 North Carolina teachers being dismissed for cause in 2011-12. That suggests school administrators couldn’t easily remove underperforming teachers, Berger wrote.

Lawmakers responded to the problem by recently ending the tenure system.

“The new system allows teachers to work under contracts that are renewed based on performance – like nearly every other profession,” he wrote.

It’s a critical change we believe is long overdue, both in North Carolina and the rest of the nation.

It seems clear Berger and North Carolina’s legislative leaders are focused squarely on ways to help students get more out of their public education.

Meanwhile the teachers union, or “association” as it’s called in North Carolina, remains focused on its own self interests, and protecting its members from much needed accountability.

“Change isn’t always easy,” Berger concluded. “But it’s time to embrace this opportunity to empower our children to reach their full potential.”

We couldn’t agree more.