Open Letter| Invitation to Debate Deb Butler On Education | NC Opportunity Scholarship/Parent’s Choice

Dear Ms. Butler:

I believe the content of this video is very relevant to what we are seeing around the country, generally, in our education system.

I had the opportunity to serve as a substitute in New Hanover County Schools (elementary to high school) a few times in 2024 and 2025. I was stunned by what I saw teachers face in the classroom and where students were, academically. I witnessed an 8th grader not know her multiplication tables.

Inspired by the core message of this video, I’d like to, respectfully, challenge you to a debate where you can explain your opposition to the NC Opportunity Scholarship (aka school/parental choice), as I’d love to hear your answer to this million-dollar question:

Why would parents, at different income levels, choose to remove their kids from the same public school, in the first place?

Why would a single mom who makes $40,000 per year in District 18 and the family who makes $400,000 per year in District 18 choose to use the scholarship and unenroll their child from, say hypothetically, New Hanover High School? Or, any school in the county?

Observations

Do you realize every time you compare a wealthy family to a nonwealthy family—you insult them both? For there is no virtue in poverty or wealth. And there is no inherent evil in being wealthy.

Most wealthy people are wealthy from taking risks with money they worked hard to earn. You, of all people–being a business owner, should relate.

Also, many Black Americans are very wealthy and want to teach and help others in our community to become wealthy.

Do you realize progressive tax policy proposals disincentivize entrepreneurship–something to which many Black Americans aspire?

Your voting record and tax policy proposals favor “taxing the rich” at such a rate that it leaves little left to help others or to build and leave a family legacy—something very important to foundational Black Americans.

Entrepreneurship is a huge part of the Black American experience and ancestral legacy.

Hard work and self-determined once, primarily, defined us as is documented in Wilmington’s reconstruction-era history.

And with entrepreneurial success modeled in Black history, access to capital and keeping more of the money we earn are what I often hear from Black Americans when we are asked about top issues important to us.

For our biggest wealth building tool is our income, which enable us to NOT need government assistance with our education, housing, and other costs, etc.

The high taxes Democrats, progressives, and DSA demand will rob Black Americans of our wealth building potential.

Common sense Black Americans don’t want to eliminate rich people–because we aspire to be rich ourselves.

And if not rich, most common sense Americans simply desire to be financially independent enough to, comfortably, afford the lifestyle we want.

More Observations

Also, do you realize your aggressive opposition to the scholarship presupposes nefarious motives on the part of your Republican colleagues in the state legislature?

You frame your opposition in a way that suggests they acted as agents North Carolina’s wealthy taxpayers to include them in the scholarship opportunity.

This presupposes wealthy taxpayers are doing something deceptive or immoral by taking advantage of an “income-adjusted” opportunity for their child.

It presupposes parents who are not wealthy don’t deserve the same choice wealthy parents have to send their kids to a better-performing school that meets the unique learning needs of that child.

And finally, your opposition presupposes nonwealthy people in District 18 should only trust you and progressive Democrats to solve their education, housing, childcare, healthcare, and other social and economic problems.

My Position

I’ve taken time to state my position and address some of the good-faith criticism of the Opportunity Scholarship on my campaign blog post titled, “School Choice is NOT the Enemy of Public Schools…”

In it, I offer a glass-half-full, solution-oriented perspective that acknowledges legitimate criticism about the scholarship and gaps that I believe can be worked through and improved with good-faith collaborative legislators.

For, this pin-the-tail-on-your-political-opponent and wealthy people over this issue has to stop.

It’s so predictable, low-brow, and lazy. Only those who lack authenticity and have no credible solutions or respectable rebuttals engage in such.

Students are suffering. Too many can’t read, write, or do math.

The highest and best use of legislative time is to figure out why any parent would want to remove their child from a public school in the first place.

Now is not the time to demonize the wealthy or political opponents for, at least, trying to problem-solve by providing opportunity for EVERY taxpaying parent in this state to recoup some of their tax dollars to choose and secure the best-quality education for their child.

Observing The “Lack of Funding” Conversation
I strongly suspect the primary problem is NOT all funding, while conceding, for many schools, funding is a significant factor creating problems. Although, educators and legislators who complain about “lack of funding” as the primary problem in education BEFORE seeking to understand why parents want to remove their child from a school, in the first place, have lost the plot.

For, the next million-dollar question would be where have all the billions of dollars appropriated over the years, to-date gone?

Again funding is a factor, but blaming “lack of funding” has been the scapegoat for decades to the point it’s becoming an insult to constituent intelligence.

Conclusion
For the heart of what this common sense educator is conveyed in that video is EVERY ADULT in this education failure equation has dropped the ball.

Every adult and students, at a certain age, are accountable for the lack of academic progress in our schools. Legislators, school administrators, teachers have a role to play in solving this problem.

For it is a compounded and comprehensive problem that requires a comprehensive –collaborative solution. It will not be solved with just “more funding.”

Solving starts with accountability and being honest about how we got here.

We must ask and answer these hard questions, starting with the why, if we are serious about solving this problem.

And praises to those schools–public, private, and home–who demand excellence, don’t cut corners, are fiscally responsible. And as a result, their schools are meeting or exceeding performance and fiscal standards.

We need children of all income strata to get top-tier instruction so they can grow up and become their highest and best in this state to keep NC as one of the best places to live, work, and raise a family.

So what do you say Ms. Butler? Let’s talk.