In the upcoming state superintendent race, candidates Mo Green and Michele Morrow are fighting for control over the public institutions of North Carolina. Morrow, the Republican candidate who surpassed the incumbent Catherine Truitt in the primary election, is severely underqualified and poses a threat to the quality and safety of our public schools in North Carolina.

Morrow’s only experience with the public school system is her enrollment in it as a child. After attending the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, she became a nurse — a noble occupation but one without much overlap with the public school system.

She claims teaching experience within what she calls “parent-led micro-schools,” or small groups of students who are being homeschooled by their parents.

Homeschooling itself is certainly not a problem, but in the context of the state superintendent race, this experience is not as relevant as Morrow makes it out to be.

As a representative of public schools across North Carolina, our state superintendent should at least hold some experience within a public school classroom. To truly understand the functions and needs of the public school system, our state superintendent should have experienced them first hand. Morrow has not.

Not only is Morrow underqualified for the position, her stances also pose a threat to the current state of public education in North Carolina.

As a supporter of the Parents’ Bill of Rights, Morrow is in favor of rules that remove the autonomy of the school system.

The Parents’ Bill of Rights is a controversial bill passed in the General Assembly in August 2023. In the contexts of public instruction, it is meant to allow the parent to “direct the education … of [their] child.”

Schools are meant to teach students things that they could not learn otherwise, and by allowing parents to influence what schools can and can not teach, they are undermining the purpose of educational institutions themselves.

Morrow also believes schools should not teach America’s history as a “racist and oppressive nation,” a notion that is incredibly flawed. If we choose to ignore the mistakes that our country made in the past, we will never grow into a greater, more united nation in the future.

For a candidate that stresses a system of education that promotes “fairness, equality and unity,” it seems that she would rather protect the sanctity of the American image and brush the mistakes of the past under the rug.

Morrow deems social-emotional learning, an aspect of K-12 education that stresses the building of interpersonal relationship-building skills and emotional self-management, as “non-academic” and a “waste [of] money.”

Social and emotional health is taught throughout K-12 education. While learning academic-related subjects, students are also taught how to make connections with their peers, how to manage and regulate their emotions and how to function as a person in society.

Social-emotional learning is intertwined with our academic curricula and it would be detrimental to exorcize this from the public school curriculum.

Another major part of public education is the education of those with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Morrow has publicly stated that students with intellectual and developmental disabilities will “never be able to compete” with the “gifted and talented” students. This is extremely problematic and is her justification for advocating for the removal of inclusion programs in classrooms.

Intellectual and developmental disabilities exist on a wide spectrum of conditions, severties and impacts on a person’s life. This broad generalization by Morrow shows not only that she is largely uneducated on the issue but also that she does not care for a large portion of students within North Carolina.

While the superintendent of state mostly impacts K-12 education, there is some impact on the public institutions of higher education, such as NC State. As the person at the forefront of educational-policy advocacy, the superintendent of state has the ability to call for new policy that can impact the sanctions placed on universities as well as the funding given to them by the government.

The position also less-observably impacts the students that are applying to and entering universities. As the nature of the K-12 public school system changes, so will the education and condition of incoming students.

When considering who is qualified and has the best intentions in mind for public education in North Carolina, I urge you to consider the information presented here.

Morrow poses a major threat to the safety and autonomy of our schools, as well as the populations of students within them. If we strive to have a higher standard of public education in our state, we must work together to ensure that we place individuals with the necessary experience and strength of character at the forefront of our institutions.