© 2024 254 North Front Street, Suite 300, Wilmington, NC 28401 | 910.343.1640
News Classical 91.3 Wilmington 92.7 Wilmington 96.7 Southport
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
CAPE FEAR MEMORIAL BRIDGE CLOSURE: UPDATES, RESOURCES, AND CONTEXT
WHQR will host and broadcast four candidate forums as part of the 2012 Election Season in the MC Erny Gallery, 254 N. Front Street, #300.Each forum will feature two local journalists asking prepared questions during the first half of the event. The second portion will be dedicated to questions from voters. A live studio audience will be invited to ask questions during this segment. We'll also use questions sent in from listeners.If you have a question for the candidates, please email us (newsdirector@whqr.org) or submit via Twitter with the #whqrforums hash tag and tell us which slate of candidates you'd like to address. We reserve the right to edit the questions for clarity, brevity, and objectivity. Each question must be addressed to all candidates in a particular race. If you can't attend the live event, Tweet along while you tune in or listen or watch the webcast online at 7 PM each night to hear the candidates! (WWAY will also broadcast the forums live on Time Warner Cable. RTV is channel 106, on ATMC, channel 903, on Charter Cable, channel 145 and over-the-air at 3.2.)Tuesday, Oct. 2, 7 PM- New Hanover County CommissionersJonathan Barfield (Current Vice Chairman)Beth DawsonRobert MurrayDr. Derrick HickeyWoody WhiteRob Zapple Thursday, Oct. 4, 7 PM- NC House District 18Representative Susi Hamilton (D)Louis Harmati (R) Monday, Oct. 8, 7 PM - NC Senate District 9Senator Thom Goolsby (R)Deb Butler (D) Thursday, Oct. 18, 7 PM - NC House District 19 & NC House District 20 NC House District 19Ted Davis, Jr. (Current NHC Commission Chair)Emilie Swearingen (Current Kure Beach Councilwoman)NC House District 20Rick Catlin (Current NHC Commissioner) (R)Tom Gale (D)

Big focus on education in NC Senate District 9 candidate forum

Several issues were discussed during last night’s North Carolina Senate District 9 forum at the WHQR Gallery, but education continued to surface as one of the central debates. WHQR’s Sara Wood reports incumbent Republican Thom Goolsby and Democratic opponent Deb Butler argued the merits and failures of the state’s education system.

The two candidates played hot potato over which party deserves credit and blame for the state’s educational highs and lows. Republican Senator Goolsby lauded his party for improving teachers’ pay, health care and retirement plans after dealing with the mess he says Democrats left.

“We saw the results of this year in this county alone and across the state. We had an increase in the graduation rate in North Carolina. We had an increase in the standardized test rates here in New Hanover County on both of those fronts.  So we’ve worked hard, we’ve concentrated on what we need to do to fix education.” 

Democratic candidate Butler refuted Goolsby’s claims, saying he was taking credit for a program decades in the making.

“Sir, those children did not start school yesterday or last year. They started in 1993, which is when Smart Start originated. So we are now seeing the benefits of the Smart Start program, that’s why the test scores are higher, and you de-funded that by 20 percent. So don’t try to take credit for the graduation rates that are happening today.” 

Goolsby says Republicans focused on what’s best for education during tough economic times, including creating budgets that make sense.

“My opponent continues to talk about education cuts. I would just point out to you from 2009 to 2010, when the democrats were in charge, we saw a reduction of half a billion dollars in the money that went to schools in North Carolina. In our first budget, you will see an overall increase in $11 million to schools federal, state and local money.” 

Butler says Republicans should own up to the cuts they’ve made, including laying off thousands of North Carolina teachers. 

“Just go round up some teachers. I sat with six retired New Hanover school teachers. They see what has happened: classroom sizes are billowing out, fewer resources, fewer teachers, fewer teaching assistants.”