Of course there is ‘Mo’ to the story

If you would have told me a year ago that the race for DPI superintendent would be the roughest, nastiest in-state campaign for 2024, I might have laughed at you.  At this point, the race to be the state’s next chief education officer is overshadowing the races for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general. 

The combatants in the DPI race, Republican Michele Morrow and Democrat Mo Green, rolled into Pinecrest High School in Southern Pines with their entourages Monday night for the taping of a debate to be televised this week.

No joke – there were security dogs and metal detectors at the front entrance to the auditorium.  You would have thought a presidential candidate was on-scene. Team Mo imported all kinds of rabble from outside of the county.  (I counted multiple bald-headed young women, women wearing fruit on their heads, and a number of individuals wearing women’s clothes and makeup while sporting mustaches and goatees.)

For a crowd that like to demand *civility* from conservatives and other normal people, Team Mo sure didn’t provide much.  They whooped, screamed, waved their hands in the air, twerked, and shouted out incoherent slogans.  It was The Jerry Springer Show‘s audience. (*Totally.*)

Present Tense, Past Tense.   Since we’re talking about education, I think it’s important that we get stuff like this nailed down.  Green repeatedly tells audiences that Morrow “homeschools” her children.  “Homeschools” is present tense.  That means it happens now.

The reality?  All of Morrow’s kids are grown and out of the house.  The Morrow kids experienced a mixture of private, public and charter schools. So, it would be much more proper to say “homeschooled” when speaking about the education of the Morrow kids.  It all happened in the past. 

At Monday’s debate in Southern Pines, Morrow made an interesting point along these lines.  She wants to make the public school option as attractive to parents as the other two options. 

Experience.  Green enjoys telling audience about his *experience* for the DPI job — his two superintendent gigs in Greensboro and Charlotte. He doesn’t like to tell people what he admitted while being interviewed in 2018 on a PBS program:  Well-connected cronies had to “change the rules” so he could be hired as superintendent. 

Morrow had a great line in response to Green’s experience monologue Monday night:

“He’s right.  I don’t have any experience  — in a failing school system, rocked with violence, beset by plummeting test scores.”

Green and his cheerleaders in the media don’t like to talk about Morrow’ role in a homeschooling collective in Wake County.  Parents got together to form a faculty to teach their children the various subjects they needed.  (Morrow’s specialty subjects included the sciences and Spanish language.)

Team Mo also doesn’t like to talk about his experience running the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation. He only retired from the role in 2023.  (He spent 6.5 years at ZSR.) All he and his team want to mention are his stints in Charlotte and Greensboro. *Even if it has been a while.*

*Even if no one in their right mind would recommend to their friends and families enrolling their kids in Charlotte or Greensboro public schools.*

Change vs. Status Quo.  Career public education bureaucrat are afraid of Michele Morrow.  She talks about auditing the DPI and other components of the public education infrastructure.  Too much money, she says, is being trapped at the top levels of the organizational chart — instead of filtering down to the teacher and classroom levels where it can do the most good.

The National Association of Educators (NEA) and the NC Association of Educators (NCAE) are passionately behind Green.  They know he’ll keep the grift and all the six-figure salaries coming.

Improving the work environment.  

Green says healthy pay raises will improve morale in the classrooms.  Morrow says she’s hearing more from parents and teachers about safety issues. In too many cases – in too many classrooms – thugs who the administrations will not suspend or expel are terrorizing fellow students and school employees.  What good will a few extra dollars do you if you fear for your safety walking in the door of the school every day? 

Racial Quotas for School Discipline.  Monday’s most unreported story was Green coming out in favor of adjusting punishments / suspensions based on skin color. If the evidence is there, throw the book at the accused. Whether they are purple, teal or eight feet tall. 

The DPI race is important for everyone in the state.  It doesn’t matter whether you have school-age kids.  Public education plays a huge role in how well our communities, our state and our nation compete in the new, rapidly-changing economy.