NPE Action endorses Southey Blanton for North Carolina State Senate District 25
The Network for Public Education Action proudly endorses Southey Blanton for North Carolina State Senate District 25. Southey grew up the son of a public school teacher, attended public schools and has four children in public schools. He helps build and design training for all child welfare workers in the state of North Carolina as well as training and resources for Foster and Resource parents. He volunteers as a soccer and basketball coach for the local parks and recreation and has been an assistant high school basketball coach. Southey also is a member of various PTO’s and PTA’s at his children’s schools.
Southey’s top priority in public education is to fully fund NC public schools and ensure teachers are paid a wage that allows them to teach and live the life they want to live. Southey will advocate for fully funding public schools to ensure schools have the resources they need such as nurses, bus drivers, counselors, computers, and supplies. He would push to restore the various cuts to pay for teachers such as restoring master pay and longevity pay, along with increases to salaries and making salaries linked to inflation to ensure adequate cost of living increases so that teachers never have to take a second job to make ends meet.
Southey is a supporter of small class size because he feels that it means teachers can help more children. He further expanded that “small class size means a teacher can see when a kid is having a bad day, or when they are upset and need additional attention to keep them from lashing out. Small class size means students can ask questions and not disappear into the crowd. I would absolutely support funding schools and ensuring they are staffed at levels to allow for smaller and smaller class sizes.”
Where he stands:
- Vouchers: “It’s a scam. It’s welfare for rich families that allows private schools to increase tuition, meaning increasing profits and resources, which they can then advertise and lure more families into the scam.”
- Charter schools: “I believe the original idea of a charter school was interesting and possibly helpful. They were intended to be laboratories, to develop new techniques or ideas to be shared and spread through public schools. The charter school system has been corrupted and taken over by private business and others who are solely interested in profiting off the myth of the failing public school.”
NPE Action urges North Carolina public education supporters to get out the vote for Southey in the primary election on November 3, 2026.
Not authorized by any candidate or candidate committee. Authorized and paid for by Network for Public Education Action, PO Box 227. New York, NY 10156. 646-678-4477.