The Problem

Buncombe officials are failing in their charge to academically prepare our children. Commission and School Board shortcomings center on safety, resources and the most damning measurement of all – results.

The Facts

When opportunistic politicians seek justification for reaching into other people’s pockets, “It’s for the children” is a favored strategy.  Per honest budget and performance measures, Buncombe County is extravagantly dedicated to just about every special interest but children. It’s as simple as 1,2,3 —

1. Buncombe is the 11th largest school system in NC. Last year we had the 3rd most criminal acts per student. The year before we came in 1st. You can’t learn in unsafe schools.

2. We’re 11th in size, but 34th in per pupil expenditures. This year Buncombe County funding of public safety is up 21 percent; human services is up 14 percent; education – a mere 2 percent. County leaders are not walking their “kids come first” talking.

3. Last year, per the NC Department of Public Instruction, only 51 percent of Buncombe’s 3rd-8th grade students were reading at grade level. If you can’t read in school, you can’t learn in school.

The Mischief

One of the two most primitive paths to personal identity development is herding. Models of such can be found in two adolescent infused environments – politics and middle school. In both a desire to be part of the in-crowd guides most participants.  

That Buncombe’s school board functions as a herd is affirmed by minutes and voting records. What is less clear is why they are so frightened. What else would motivate going to such lengths to discourage dissent? Everything but duct tape is used to muzzle one member – mother of four Lisa Baldwin – who persists in raising questions, pushing for accountability and challenging her peer’s status quo dedications.   

Per their own incredibly complex documentation, Buncombe’s Commission similarly sells one set of priorities and lives another. Though declarative in affirming a dedication to education, budget numbers mumble. Comfort politicians serve the same purpose as comfort food – and result in the same outcome.  

There is a serious mismatch between the performance of our school system and the self-congratulating pronouncements of cheerleading officials. Habituated media outlets are cooperating as booster clubs by discarding investigative journalism as a crucial eye on this $250 million taxpayer-funded enterprise.

Buncombe County has long been run by Democrats. Until the past decade, most were at least moderately conservative in managing government. Five of the seven current members, by pronouncement, voting record or both, are liberal-socialist-progressives who love to spend other people’s money. That they are spending more and more uplifting cronies and left-minded special interests over children reveals systemic mendacity. 

After Mission Hospital, Buncombe County’s school system is our community’s second largest employer. A lot of people are invested in keeping a happy face on this tax-funded monopoly.

In an age of contradictorily obsessive data collection and compulsive responsibility avoidance, spin skills are highly valued in public officials. Common techniques include highlighting positive statistics in summary reports, hiding uncomfortable facts amidst data clutter and minimizing bad stuff as temporary phenomenon.

Buncombe’s administrative salaries are in line with state norms for eastern population centers. But discerning observers will note, as recently reported by Asheville’s daily paper, salary averages in our part of the state notoriously run 20-plus percent lower than eastern peers. Buncombe administrators thus receive incomes dramatically out of step with the taxpayers who fund them.

Whenever other people’s money is in the hand of political powerbrokers, healthy skepticism is the name of the game.  Consider Buncombe’s advocacy for a design-build process with capital improvements. The correct equation for public works should always be design-bid-build.

Here’s a million-dollar example of why. On a 6-1 September vote, the school board approved a no-bid preconstruction contract for site work on the Enka Intermediate School. Instead of the predicted $2.2 million, the guaranteed maximum price came in at $3.1 million. Owen’s new tennis courts are projected to cost $412,000 and are likewise being designed and constructed without an attached bidding process. With all high-dollar projects, healthy competition is central to containing costs and graft.   

One example of how Buncombe leaders manipulate the facts is the proud assertion we rank 17th in the nation in board certified teachers. To pull it off they compare large districts to small districts, use numbers instead of percentages and sidestep the reality that North Carolina offers certification incentives that other states don’t. Most of the country’s school systems are arranged to be significantly smaller than the state’s. Applying Buncombe’s data manipulation to the rest of the state would find Wake County having a national ranking of 1st and Mecklenburg 3rd.

For a more local comparison, in Henderson County 221 or 24 percent of their 914 teachers are board certified. At 489, Buncombe has twice as many certified teachers, but out of a total of 2000, about the same percentage. As with so many of Buncombe’s school performance measures, leaders are claiming an “A” when a “C” is a more accurate fit. 

More Facts

Bureaucrats and unscrupulous politicians count on the fact very few people have the tenacity to find needles in haystacks. Here are a few more needles:

• Only 31 percent of Buncombe’s school budget is spent on classroom teachers.

• It’s impossible to measure Buncombe’s budget for administration. Job titles, functions and other identifiers assure such. Budget tracking with school systems matters – for the same reason knowing only 7 percent of donations to the Firefighters Charitable Foundation go to service matters.

• Approximately one in five of our children physically drop out of school before graduating. The number who psychologically withdraw and graduate without literacy and crucial skills – inestimable. 

• County funding for classroom supplies dropped from $1.88 million to $1.1 million over the past three years – that’s a 40 percent decrease.

• Last year senior administrative bonuses totaled $600,000. In 2006, by a 7-0 vote, school administrators were provided a financial cushion with a “Principal and Assistant Principal Pay Plan.” This perk was implemented while teacher pay remained frozen from 2007-2013. For principals it amounts to about $12,000 a year in “extra duty pay” above and beyond their salary, county supplement and state longevity compensation. That’s 4.8 million since the program’s inception. Ask teachers about their extra duties and the absence of matching consideration.

• While local Democrats criticize Raleigh Republicans, over the past year the percentage of property taxes in Buncombe going to education has fallen from 43.5 to 41.6 percent. At the same time those Raleigh Republicans have increased the state education budget and given NC’s teachers their first pay raise in years.

• Buncombe’s County government initiated debt is fast approaching a half-billion dollars. We are enthusiastic about building buildings – not so much on building children.

• Amidst this county wide construction boom, poor planning, resource management and timing has some schools operating at 139 percent capacity and others at 59 percent. This while expensive vanity schools are being built to satisfy political versus academic interests.

A Curiosity

One of the odder aspects of our community’s education bureaucracy centers on Asheville’s public schools. Through a very generous city education tax, a separate bureaucracy is maintained with no improvement in outcome.

The dropout rate for black male students in the city of Asheville is nothing short of tragic. The city high school has to run a school within a school to maintain a safe place for kids seeking an island of normalcy amidst the thuggery.

Asheville and Buncombe school systems share something in common – around half of their respective students receive free or reduced cost meals. That number reveals systematic fraud on the part of careless officials and greedy parents. That’s a dangerous community equation – when it comes to government and offspring, we get precisely what we earn. 

Perhaps the greatest irony of the city school system is that it teaches less than half of the students living within city boundaries. Asheville taxpayers are funding a separate bureaucracy for the same reason we tolerate drug and crime infested public housing projects – habit and indifference.  

Why it matters

We live in a world of growing predatory enthusiasms. Educated people are more equipped to dodge victimization. Whether they know it or not, the uneducated line up for it.  

Jobs are every society’s best social service. Jobs provide purpose and opportunity. Jobs stimulate personal growth. Jobs support liberty by translating personal labor into food, mobility and housing. An employed person controls a generous portion of his or her destiny – a state of grace that government dependency destroys. To get a good job one must have skills that add something meaningful to the world. Education – good education – is the fastest path to this source of personal power.  

The herds mentioned earlier run on instinct and habit. Soundly educated people run on reason. It’s easier to close the gate on herds constrained by the former than individuals unleashed by the latter.

Solutions

Over time people of the lie forget they are lying. We shouldn’t.

There are no substitutions for an engaged citizenry.

Unscrupulous politicians and bureaucrats count on complacency to insure their misdeeds. If parents put half as much energy into holding official’s feet to the fire as on selling coupon books, the facts would tilt from identified adult failures to student successes.

There is great irony that in the midst of an unprecedented information age, investigative journalism has all but disappeared. There is simply no replacement for paid, dedicated and supported reporters turned loose on the truth.

There is a strong need for more elected officials – think mothers of four with a courage button – willing to stand as independent voices. Comfort politicians travel in herds. Sheepdogs don’t.

Those searching for a reliable flag on public official mischief need look no further than the expansive use of superlatives.  The minute anyone uses words like “awesome”, you can bet there’s more air in the bag than potato chips. 

Conservative tip of the month – Growing evidence our society is losing its moral and economic high ground is a source of discouragement for value-driven Americans. Leaders promising something for nothing are clearly in charge and our national character is surrendering to the seduction.

Focusing on something we can’t control – other’s nuttiness – leads to despair. Focusing on something over which we do have mindful influence – our work, our family and small groups of similarly minded folks – just the opposite. Adult thinkers should certainly try to slow our culture’s slide, but not as angry and depressed victims.

Celebrating the creative challenges of our own life is one of the best ways to uplift our fellow man. The darker it gets, the brighter a small light shines. 

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Do you have information about a source of mischief in our community? You can safely contact us at 828-252-8390 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . We are offering a $500 reward for information on corruption, crime, or other harms you share in confidence and we reveal in print. Bad things grow in the dark. We have a flashlight – do you have a whistle?

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Carl Mumpower, a former member of Asheville City Council, may be contacted at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .