Accomplishments in education, linked in part to taxation
Scott notes two accomplishments he looks back on with pride. First, he "won" the school consolidation battle. Second, he began a public kindergarten system, taxing soda and cigarettes and raising $90 million to set it up. He traces the decline of the public school system since then to reluctance by his successors to raise taxes.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with Robert W. (Bob) Scott, September 18, 1986. Interview C-0036. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Full Text of the Excerpt
I guess as far as political things and satisfaction there were two
things. One was the consolidation of the university system. That was
really a battle royal, blood all over the floor. But we won that in a
close one. The other was the beginning of the
public school kindergarden system. I'm very proud of that. We
had talked about it for years. We needed public school kindergardens but
it was one of those things that was expensive. We didn't have
enough money to do it. I, and Craig Phillips worked closely with me on
this, we decided that we couldn't take it off all in one
bite. Number one, the schools of education had not trained qualified
public school kindergarden teachers. We did decide to try some pilot
projects first. So we set one up in each educational district in the
state. There were eight public school kindergardens. We got the bugs
worked out, and that's when I went to the legislature and
asked for a tax on cigarettes and a tax on soft drinks, which again was
a "blood all over the floor" deal. The money was used,
the ninety million dollars that we raised, was used to start those
public school kindergardens. It took, well, I guess you had to be stupid
to do that in reflection. But I'm proud of the fact that I
felt strong enough about it to take it on and to do it.
That is the last addition to the general fund revenues that
we've had in North Carolina except I think maybe they have an
extra half-cent sales tax. Most of the sales tax that's been
added on has gone to local governments. I think maybe they kept an extra
half-cent for the state at some point in time. That was in addition to
the tax we already had. Those were the last two new taxes
we've ever had in this state. Ever since then governors have
been running on the platform no new taxes, and that's why
education and human services and other things are suffering in this
state because governors get themselves locked in
by promising no new taxes. You can't ride that particular
horse forever. You've got to have some money from somewhere
if you're going to meet the needs of the people. But
that's another story.