Dear Guilford County Commissioners,

For too long, Guilford County has over invested in incarceration and underinvested in education. Teacher assistants, cafeteria workers and custodians are leaving the profession to work elsewhere. An estimated 80% of our 5,000 custodians, cafeteria workers, teacher assistants and bus drivers and other support staff don't make $15/hr. 68% are Black. We can do better than that. This month Chatham and Durham counties have announced plans to raise property taxes because they recognize the value of fully funding education. But because Guilford County has effectively rolled back property taxes since 2014 by first lowering taxes and then leaving the rate structure the same since then, Guilford County has lost out on over $20 million a year. That's a total of over $121 million that could have gone to raises for public school employees. It’s time to restore our county’s commitment to fully funding public education.

Meanwhile, there are 41 vacant positions at the Guilford County Detention Center, which was built to house way more inmates than it does - the county has consistently budgeted for an average daily population of 950 detainees, but in FY 2019 only housed an average of 660. Many of those positions will only be filled if we incarcerate far more county residents. Last year, our county prioritized $295,000 on an armored vehicle with seized funds that could have been used for additional investments in education. Eliminating 20 of the 41 vacant positions would free up $1.2 million that could be reallocated to our frontline educators.

That’s why we’re calling on the Guilford County Board of Commissioners to reallocate funding for half of the vacant jail positions to raises for teacher assistants, custodians, cafeteria workers, teachers and bus drivers. Our students deserve educators who only need one job to survive.