Senate Republican Leader
Senator Phil Berger
26th Senatorial District
Phone Number: (919) 733-5708
North Carolina Senate
Room 1026, Legislative Building
Raleigh, NC 27601 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
December 18, 2007

Regarding the decision by Superior Court Judge Howard Manning about the money to be paid by the state to school systems in order to comply with a 2005 state Supreme Court concerning funds collected by state agencies as civil penalties, Senate Republican Leader Phil Berger (R-Rockingham) made the following statement:

"North Carolina's Supreme Court confirmed that our Constitution requires that money collected by state agencies as civil penalties are to be paid to North Carolina's schools and not retained by the state government bureaucracy.  Democrats in charge of state government, from Governor Mike Easley to Democrat legislative leaders, have known for some two years now that this obligation existed; they also know that school districts across North Carolina need this money.  Nevertheless, these same Democrat leaders continue to fight local school systems to deny money that rightfully belongs to those schools.  This is just another example of how North Carolina's elected Democrats fail our students, our public schools, and our local communities.  With high school graduation rates so low that respected education experts now refer to some of North Carolina's schools as 'dropout factories,' it is distressing to see Democrat leaders, while professing to be champions of education, continue policies that favor state bureaucracies at the expense of students and local school systems."

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