Funding for Hurricane Helene relief and private school vouchers will be on the agenda as State lawmakers return to Raleigh on Thursday, October 24. (Photo: Melissa Sue Gerrits/Getty Images)
Climate change still has its skeptics.
But the insurance industry isn’t one of them.
It’s so balmy about global warming that it has stopped writing policies for a lot of people living in states prone to extreme weather. Climate change is that real for the actuaries and other experts who crunch the numbers.
What’s more, agents who are willing to sell homeowners insurance in risky areas make sure they’re not upside down by passing the buck, literally, forcing policyholders to assume more risk through higher rates.
In many ways, those insurers are like our good neighbors in the North Carolina General Assembly who are poised to override Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of House Bill 10 when they return to Raleigh this week. Cooper believes the legislation is bad business because it would funnel more than half a billion dollars to the state’s private schools in the form of vouchers — much of it subsidizing wealthy families already paying for their children’s private school education. It’s money that would not go to public schools.
Which is an awful deal from a risk-reward standpoint. Students in public schools are required to meet certain state-mandated academic standards. Private schools don’t have to do that.
Public schools must provide special education for students who learn differently.
Not private schools.
“By law, they aren’t required to,” North Carolina Black Alliance programs attorney Yolanda Taylor said.
HB 10 will irresponsibly pass taxpayers’ bucks by enabling students in private schools to underperform by any measure while getting rewarded with hundreds of millions of public dollars flowing into their classrooms. No strings attached. No accountability.
Yet there are public schools in western North Carolina needing either repair or a complete rebuild. Hurricane Helene was monstrous. Its shadow will hover over the state for a really long time. Catherine Truitt, the state superintendent of public instruction, has asked legislators for an initial $150 million to resurrect shuttered campuses. Elementary schools go for $42 million a pop these days, to hear Truitt tell it.
So, considering her ask for public schools, plus what HB 10 would send to private schools, exactly where in the world would legislators come up with all of that money?
The question stumps North Carolina House Democratic leader Robert Reives, too.
“The General Assembly has a responsibility to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars and to ensure that we are getting the best return on that investment we can,” Reives said. “Recent spending decisions have shown that the majority in Raleigh have their own priorities, with their focus on pushing public dollars into private school vouchers. I believe that our state can deal with the urgent needs of our citizens, particularly when it comes to the long road ahead for disaster relief in western North Carolina, but the flexibility to make those investments means that we have to be prudent with how we spend money before and after crises like this.”
By the way, the Atlantic hurricane season runs through Nov. 30.