From Staff Reports

For years, North Carolina’s public school sysem has  had a tendency to follow the latest fad in education, but the students would be much better served with a return to the basics, John Tedesco, Republican candidate for state superintendent for public instruction, told a gathering in Asheville on Sept. 14.

“I think we need to get back to basics,” he said. “I don’t believe we need to push kids through (the school system), if they can’t read.”

He added, “I get passionate about this because I think our children are worth fighting for.”

Tedesco made the remarks during a luncheon forum, which drew about 20 people, at Mangolia’s Raw Bar & Grille in downtown Asheville. The luncheon featuring the candidate  was hosted by Lisa Baldwin, a member of the Buncombe County school board.

Tedesco began by noting that he speaks fast because he has so many idea he wants to convey quickly. “My wife sometimes teases me that I have a Southern heart and a yankee mouth,” he quipped, triggering laughter from the GOP faithful.

He noted that he grew up in Pittsburgh, Penn., and his father worked in the steel mills, so he was raised in a working-class environment. “I jokingly say I wasn’t born here in North Carolina, but I got here as fast as I could.”

Tedesco, who lives in the Raleigh area with his wife and three teenage children, said most of his career has been in public adminstration, so “I saw how our systems are set up ... I said to myself (eventually), ‘I think I need to get involved in this on the front end.’”

As for his political stance, he said, “Everyone knows I’m a conservative, unabashed.”

The candidate lamented that North Carolina is ranked fourth in the nation in in-school suspensions and fourth in the nation in incarcerations of its populace.

Tedesco also said, “Our teachers are doing more with less ... One in five of our (North Carolina) children” are dropping out of school and many of those who do stay in school “are not graduating prepared for our workforce.”

For instance, the candidate asserted, “We have thousands of jobs we can’t fill (in North Carolina) because people don’t have the training.”

He also addressed the connection between the state’s school systems shortcomings and the “prison pipeline.”

With a $1.4 billion budget for public education, Tedesco said North Carolina has the 16th biggest school system “in all of America.”

“Over the past 20 years, educational spending has more than doubled, while students have stayed about the same in their performances on standardized tests. Tedesco said most of the spending increase has gone “for administration.”

He added, “We need to get those dollars for teachers and for students in the classroom.” Tedesco vowed to work hard “to get administrators out of our classrooms and let the teachers teach.” He also said he would push to get parents more involved and “we can’t have a one-size-fits-all education model.”

While “I’ll admit I don’t have all the answers,” Tedesco also said, “I have no ego about it” and will pursue what works best for educating the students.

Among his plans, if elected, are the following:

• Reduce the level of bureaucratic oversight.

• Increase customer service.

• Let more local control of schools happen.

• Build a better-educated workforce.

•Trim waste and protect classrooms.

• Empower parents and communities.

• Return to basics and innovate.

During a quesiton-and-answer period afterward, Tedesco was asked for his ideas on addressing what meeting attendee Christina Kelly G. Merrill characterized as “a huge drug problem” in Buncombe’s public schools.” (Merrill is a candidate for Buncombe commissioner, District 2.)

Merrill also said “Nobody wants to talk about it .... We have a huge, growing drug problem.”

Tedesco replied, “Children need to feel safe” to be able to learn. “There’s no single, magic bullet. It takes a community to get engaged” to rid schools of drugs. “We need to start that conversation,” noting that he thinks “the No. 1 concern of every parent is the drug problem.”

Baldwin said, “Along those lines, the Department of Education needs to put together a data bank ... It would be good to share iformation.”

Tedesco added, “One of the biggest challenges (in the drug fight) is the parents don’t engage” with the schools. “We have to understand the community outside of our schools ... In many cases, we have babies having babies — and then they (the young mothers) have to drop out of school.”

Merrill said, “In Buncombe County, some of the highest drug problems are in high-income communities.”

Tedesco said he is aware of drug problems among youngster from upper-income areas and, having been born and raised in working-class Pittsburgh, he said, “I was blessed by the grace of God with an education ... and I got out” from drug problems around him.

Meeting attendee Linda Humphries, a retired teacher, asked if Wake County, where Tedesco serves on the school board, has a “due process or grievance procedure.”

“Part of our community outreach is creating two-way communications with parents, so they know their rights,” Tedesco replied. “It’s all about engaging with the public.” He added that grievances are all handled in closed session “because you’re dealing with employee privacy issues.”

Meeting attendee Don Yelton asserted, “Our (school) board is very closed-minded and they’re shutting Lisa (Baldwin) down.”

Tedesco expressed sympathy for Baldwin, but noted that, if elected state school superintendent, “I can’t work on a local level, but I can from a statewide level.

When pressed by Yelton if Tedesco faces the same situation on the Wake County school board as, Yelton contended, does Baldwin with the Buncombe school board, Tedesco said insofar as internal disagreements go, “All nine of us (on the Wake County school board) are really cool about it.”

An unidentified man asked, “Can your school board members make comments during meetings?”

“Yes,” Tedesco replied.