BLACK LAWSUIT OVER SENATE
REDISTRICTING GOES TO TRIAL
IN DECEMBER AFTER ELECTIONS
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
After having motions for preliminary injunctions rejected by both a federal district court judge and the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, a lawsuit brought by two African-American plaintiffs challenging two state Senate districts redrawn by the Republican-led NC General Assembly, may go to trial at the earliest this December 2.
But Republican legislative leaders say that date is too soon.
The move is significant because the trial will take place after the November general elections, meaning that the two contested Senate voting districts in northeastern North Carolina will be used during balloting, which is what the two Black plaintiffs attempted to stop in the first place.
The second note of concern is that the redistricting plan will be going back before the federal district court judge who initially dismissed plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction on January 26th. That judge, James C. Dever, dismissed the motion saying that it was too close to the March 5th primary for it to be considered without causing disruption.
But Judge Dever also was not impressed with plaintiffs’ argument that the two state Senate Districts, as redrawn by the legislature last October, denied African-American voters their choice of candidates because the districts were drawn in violation of the 1965 Voting Rights Act and split the Black voting population.
That argument also failed to convince a federal three-judge panel of the federal appellate court to grant the petitioned injunction. Having failed to stop the Senate redistricting maps, plaintiffs then decided to move forward with a full trial in federal court.
Republican legislative leaders stated in court papers for the defense that they preferred for the trial to be held no earlier than Feb. 3rd, 2025. They made clear to Judge Dever why they felt a December 2nd trial date was too soon.
“Legislative Defendants believe that Plaintiffs’ proposed December 2, 2024, trial date would not provide sufficient time for the parties’ experts to analyze the final election results from the November 2024 elections — the official certified results will not be final until after the Statewide canvass, which is most likely to be held on or about November 26, 2024,” attorneys for the defendants stated.
But plaintiffs countered in their submitted motions that the December 2nd date was more appropriate.
“It is unnecessary and prejudicial to push out the trial date to February 2025 to allow for a second round of full blown expert reports and depositions,” plaintiffs’ attorneys stated. “Given the realities of this litigation, potential appeals, and the need for remedial proceedings, if Plaintiffs are successful, Plaintiffs anticipate that – under the schedule Legislative Defendants propose – Legislative Defendants may eventually argue that there is not enough time to afford relief in advance of 2026 [elections].”
Even though Republican legislative leaders are allowed to submit court papers on behalf of defendants in the lawsuit, the State Board of Elections is actually listed as the defendants of record. They have made clear that they have “no objection” holding the trial in either December or February.
The trial is expected to last at least five days.
-30-
REPORT: OVER 10,000 TEACHERS
LEAVE N.C. CLASSROOMS
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
According to a recently released state report, more than 10,000 North Carolina teachers left the classroom in 2023, the highest number for an annual period in the last twenty years. Purportedly, the resignations were mostly from first-year teachers, as well as educators who had just become eligible for full retirement benefits.
That’s 11.5% of North Carolina’s rank-and-file 90,000 teaching force - 1 in 9 - that have left between March 2022 and March 2023, and is at least 42% more than those who left in 2022.
The concerning news was part of the State of the Teaching Profession report presented to the State Board of Education April 3rd.
Officials say the reasons for the massive teacher exits are not specifically clear, though traditionally, low salaries and difficult working conditions are considered the likely causes.
North Carolina is 46th nationally in first-year teacher pay, and 34th out of fifty states in average teacher pay.
Raising teacher pay is one of the issues state Attorney General Josh Stein raised during is candidates interview with the NC Black Publishers’ Association.
“It is a disgrace how the General Assembly has defunded public education in the state. North Carolina ranks 49th in the country in the share of our state’s economy that we spend on K-12 education,” Stein, a Democrat, said.
“We don’t pay our teachers enough, there are not enough support personnel in our schools, or school counselors or school nurses. And we don’t have enough affordable early childhood education slots in North Carolina. We can do better, we must do better.”
Stein’s Republican gubernatorial opponent, Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, is on record as saying that if elected governor, he would cut money from the state’s education system.
Robinson told the East Wake Republican Club last December “it has already been proven that school systems get better results on less money,” and that “cutting the fat” would be “essential.”
Later on in a newspaper questionnaire, Robinson added, “we also need to ensure teachers are treated as the professionals they are by paying them more and holding them to high standards of excellence.”
There was also a feeling on the part of departing teachers of a lack of support from their school administrations, in addition to an ever increasing workload.
All of this, while a separate report shows that less people are actually joining the profession to become teachers. There is a declining enrollment in teacher preparation programs, with just over 15,860 - a ten percent drop from 2021 to 2023.
In hopes of stemming the significant loss of teaching talent across the state, schools are hoping to lure people from other professions to the classroom. That means those who stay must work towards a N.C. teaching license if they intend to stay on the job longer than three years.
Per the report, approximately 6,000 teaching positions across the state were not filled by a qualified educator at the beginning of the 2023-24 school year. Substitute teachers have been filling the void.
Tom Tomberlin, senior director of the State Department of Public Instruction’s Office of Education Preparation and Teacher Licensure told the state board that despite the eyeopening news, school systems were pushing forward to replenish the teaching ranks.
“The silver lining of this cloud is the extraordinary work that our [school districts] do in finding teachers, specifically the HR directors and their recruitment staffs,” Tomberlin told board members. “It is extraordinary what they do to replenish our supplies every year.”
-30-
No comments:
Post a Comment