Rep. Diane Wheatley on School Funding, Healthcare, and Accessible Leadership in Cumberland County

Peter Pappas: Welcome back to the Carolina Cabinet. I'm your host, Peter Papas, and I'm in studio with Representative Diane Wheatley. Welcome. Thank you. And I'm so always glad to be here with you. Always exciting. Always exciting. I mean, you you took time from a very busy schedule. I know that you guys are off session right now, but there's plenty of work to be done. every day constituents call. I get anywhere from one hundred to three hundred emails a day. Text messages never stop and my telephone is always hot. Mm-hmm. And that's one reason. Whenever I see your number pop up, I'm like, okay, this has gotta be important because I know how valuable your time is and I really do. you are I believe one of the more accessible representatives we have. I try to be. You know, I I think Luckily I'm in your district, so you know, you respond to me. So that's what you're supposed to do, right? That's right. So let's talk about those who don't know you. talk about let's see, where are you? You from Fayetteville? Are you you got family? What tell us? Well, actually, my husband is from Fayetteville. Okay. but I was born at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. Okay. my father was a military policeman at Fort Campbell at the time and he was a paratrooper. And he was stationed all over the world. Where'd you go? Did you get to go with him? We did sometimes, but he after the being a military policeman, he was special forces and he went and left us in different places, sometimes not in America. And my mother, who was just phenomenal And didn't drive. That was, you know, kind of an interesting part of growing up with a mother that didn't drive but n used public transit and she got us everywhere we needed to go and she took care of us and made things work when he was, you know, in places like Turkey or Africa. Okay, so where what was your favorite destination that you ended up at? Germany. Germany. I think a lot of people the food is fabulous. And I was one of those little flat fat cheek little girls that was eating a lot of worst and schnitzel and just love. All the good things. So I always so having grown up here and in school here, my f some of my favorite people will always were always the army brats. Because they came in and they had such a different world view. You had been someplace, you had seen other cultures and how everybody kind of gets along and I think more importantly, in my cynical old self, it's like how the world is indifferent to you. Like you have to you gotta be a good person. You gotta you know, you can't anyway. So I I really I always made good friends with the army. I always caught them army brats, not to be derogatory, but that's what they were. And y'all were just interesting people. Well, and and I think we were fun people too. The we already understood the sense of adventure, getting along with others. Getting along when you didn't even speak the same language, sharing you know, just being able to have a friend when you were somewhere where you had no friends, you wanted one. So that was the other hallmark too. You can make friends easily. Very 'cause it was survival and you knew you you got really good at it. Unfortunately you got good at it 'cause you had to keep doing it. But any friends from that era of life that you keep up with? Yes, I have one friend who was in Batholz, Germany, when my dad was there. Her father was also special forces. She was Japanese descent. and her father was from Germany to when we both ended up here in Fayetteville and we didn't live that far apart. And she was a she ended up being a scientist for Coca Cola and I still hear from her. Okay. But but that's about the only one. Yeah. Well, at least you have somebody. I I find it valuable. I myself have a lot of friends from like second, third, fourth grade. A lot of people don't do that. You really have to work at maintaining those relationships. But I always I always seem to hang on to folks. Well, my husband, you know, has always been able to have acquaintances and friends from when he was in elementary school and high school and also when he went to NC State and I've always been very envious okay of that. So you've represented house district. It's forty three, right? That's okay I you know you know how I am with these house dist I always get they truly do. It's that that's that damn gerrymand now everybody does that. Yeah. Okay. I love the accusation of gerrymandering. I'm just gonna be off the side for a minute. Yeah. You know, the the Republicans did it. the Democrats gerrymand dude everybody does that. Everybody Everybody when they get into power They do it. And they go, and when you say, Let's draw perfect circles and do good districts that'll represent the people, they go, Well, no, nobody did that before, so we're not gonna do it now. And I think, Wow, really? why don't we just be the the bigger person and get this right? But it's not gonna happen. Yeah. It's just I mean human nature, we're self interested people. That's it. Well, you know, what what are we gonna what do we want in our four walls? And I don't care about them. Yeah, just make sure my four walls are nice. So you've represented since twenty twenty. Yes. And for people who do not follow Raleigh closely, because I am involved with the pol politics here and I don't even keep track sometimes of the who's what the house number is or whatever. But what's something different in Cumberland County because you've been there? Well, I think what's very different is the amount of money that we've been able to bring back. That people in, you know, pay state taxes and they go and you know up to Raleigh and they divide out everywhere. Well, we've been able. And I that's one of been one of my goals, and I ran on that was to bring back as much of our tax dollars that we send to Raleigh here to Cumberland County so our community would have the advantages from the school monies to all the other. You talking about voucher money? not not just well, vouchers, opportunity scholarships, public schools. we have been able to increase those areas all six years, and we've given parents choices with their children's education, but we also know that we have a huge responsibility to public schools. So we've maintained that funding this past session. we've the Republicans. in the House fought for teachers to get a eight percent pay increase, one of the largest since Republicans have taken control of legislature. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, okay. You fought. Who did you fight to get an eight percent? Well we you know that we fought our own folks. It was it was the Senate Republicans and the House Republicans and we did not agree on the amount that should come I was hoping for the easy answer. You fought the Democrats on getting a race. we did that the you did that first before and and they joined us. So we you know, it was easier pull than you think. Okay. But we wanted to, you know, I really in all the time I've been in public service, I really get tired of hearing that you know we were the lowest and that we weren't making any progress. And I thought this got stop. Now when I was on the board of education. Not only did we bring home lots of funding and we got the commissioners to do a lot of funding, we also maintained scores, we started all the academies. We just really looked at what was best for the student. Did you build schools when you were on the board? 10 on time. I was the chairman. We built at of the school board. You might not have known that at the time. We built 10 schools on time and under budget. I had enough left over to build two more in the western part of the county. and guess what? They just didn't see the way that we did it and we kept trying to say you were available, but sometimes you can't get people to listen. And this I actually Senator McGuinness was at government relations for chamber a couple weeks ago and I I didn't get a chance to really flesh this question out, but let me ask you this. You and you and our delegation from Fayetteville are up in Raleigh. You're you're the big dogs up there, okay. We've got our school board down here and we have our county commissioners over here. Now, all three of you all have a role in some part of the funding for schools or the buildings from the county, or I don't I guess school board just gets to spend the money, I guess. I don't know. They're just the lucky ones in the middle. But who is anybody like coordinating saying, Hey, school board, we need you to do this so this guy can go do that and the commissioners can do I mean, I not that you can tell another elected body what to do, but is anybody kind of coordinating? So that we move forward in this county? Actually, good question, because each entity sets up time, and as the delegation chairman this past session, I learned a lot more about what's happening, but my LA and myself would get the invitations to come and meet with the school board, Fayetteville State, Fayville Community College, the commissioners, city council. Hope Mill City Council. So open communication. Yes. Okay. And and we have all met together. And but there are so many requests that you you almost need a better mechanism. I would and I think that we're getting there. And that's that's why I'm thinking, you know, like look, there's so many moving parts and everybody it's your cause celebra, you know, that fancy word of that's your personal goal or your personal vendetta. You go you You run for office for a reason. Sometimes the school board's in your craw. I think I mentioned it with Commissioner Adams last week. You know, who likes their cell phone plan? Who likes their mayor? Who likes their kind of committee? Everybody bitches about whoever's elected. Okay. Because as soon as you get elected, you're crooked and you're thieving and God knows what else. And I would really love to know how some of you guys thieve not you, but you know, I I've asked people like, look, if if they're thieving, then let me know how. I I'd really I want the proof. But again, I said they're three independently elected boards. So one can't tell the other. I just but you have an open line of communication to try to coordinate because our our thing here is tier one, tier one, tier one. We gotta get out of tier one schools. So who's gonna fight that charge or who's gonna carry that mantle? And I think you're you're seeing all three of the bodies you mentioned fighting for that and you're hoping that it's you know, really genuine. that people want to get out of tier one and they're not looking at, my God, look at all the funding we get because we're tier one. But see, you get so much more once you come out of tier one and they've got to to work together to do that. So I I do believe that all of us have the same goal and I will tell you when they come to you at the state level they're they're looking at funding. They're already out there with their lobbyist. And they're in Raleigh, when you're in session every day, they all have their personal agendas. You wouldn't none of the local folks are all on the same sheet of music. You know, each of the townships, they're not all saying school, school, schools. They're saying, you know, water, sewer, we've got to have planning. Right. you know, so everybody is on a different page in those meetings. Well, I already said the self interested human beings we are. We are gonna want what's in our hometowns first. But the schools are a big deal to me. They it's a chicken in the egg, you know, better schools beget better economy, better jobs, but better jobs also help pay for better schools. So it's it's important that we're we're firing on all cylinders, heading in the right direction, I think. about vouchers. Yes. Okay. I know you love vouchers. I and I like the idea of vouchers too. Yeah. Because to me, I've paid property taxes pretty much my entire life that I've owned something. And you know, for my perpetual land lease with the government, we'll talk about that later. why can't I get a rebate and send my kids where I want for the f ten years they're gonna be in school or whatever? Isn't the state big enough to do both? Do you have to take money away from public schools to fund these vouchers? You do not. And that's what a a a lot of Democrats will say, Yeah, well you're taking that money because if you didn't give it to vouchers you would give it to us. Well no. It might be another, you know, area that it you feel like is more important than giving the entire amount to one entity. Sixty almost sixty percent of the state funds go to schools, public schools. And so, you know, there is not pots of money being pulled out. there actually, you know, when it goes to the budget, it's budgeted separately. And I just don't see that all that money that we're talking about would go directly to public school. It's not a one for one. You pull out a dollar, you give me a dollar voucher. It's not like that. And I think even then the vouchers give only what, two thirds or a third of the money that you if that pupil was in public school they get counted that you would give They don't get the same amount. It it the voucher's less, isn't it? Yes, it is. And opportunity scholar and see there's some differences. But with your opportunity scholarships you don't get the same amount. But, you know, it I can even see where people would think, well, you know what? if every student's gonna get and I think it's I don't even remember sixteen. Is it six it's in the team? Eighteen, something like that. Thousand. I can remember when it was five thousand. Right. And and it wa and four four thousand and something to get almost to five. But you know, if I I mean parents have their children and they want to raise their children and and send them to the best school that's going to you know serve them and they're going to graduate and get a job and have families and they have the ideas of where that's gonna be. And no no it's not a one size fits all. And it there, you know, you've got now you're seeing I I'm just amazed at some of the private schools that are funded not only through opportunity scholarships, but just some funding for special needs children. And y when you look at Cumberland County, we are the highest or had the highest number of private schools in the state. And you go, okay, then we we can look at Fort Bragg that gives us all that diversity of and we want all that independent thought and people have their ideas. I want a religious school, I want a, you know, my child children to focus on academics. I want to serve in a curriculum. and you just go it goes on and on. So parents, I have different ideas about how their children some want to do it themselves. And like I said, it's how long are you going to be child rearing, you know, for one kid 12 years. Or 18 years basically, you know, but 12 years in school, so so to speak. You know, and then I'm going to go back to my tax and go wherever the hell else. But for the 12 years, divert is the way I looked at it. And I know that we have a large enough economy, thank goodness, that we can afford to do both. So hopefully we can work on those public schools as well. So what are some priorities this term regarding budget taxes? What what have you been working on this live this this past term, I guess? I did work on some health issue healthcare issues. I think as if anybody hasn't been to an emergency room or in the hospital or even to their doctor's offices. then they may not have realized the changes, but there are huge changes going on in the healthcare field. Okay. And I'm a registered nurse. So this last session I spent I was on the health committee and I did spend a lot of time working on the issues and and with some insurance issues and Alzheimer's was I had a bill. And f and I talked about that I think a little last time for biomarkers. We never got it through the Senate, got it through the House perfectly fine. Just you know, everybody was in agreement, but it never got heard. Okay. And that's the thing people don't understand. You can put a bill in, but if the head of the Senate, who isn't going to be there next time, isn't there or it doesn't agree with your bill, then you're not gonna get it heard. Right. So it wasn't even heard. It wasn't that they went for a vote. It just didn't it But it passed through the What do they do? Stick it in a committee and it just fizzles stick it under the their little blotter. But it goes to rules. If you want to know what does happen, it goes to rules and the rules chairman holds it. Okay. So I am gonna ask you a sort of tough question because I got roasted about this one. you you mentioned you were the head of our delegation. Yes. So tell me about nine one one and the consolidation here. Because I I was very vocal that I knew were gonna ask me about that. Well, you know, only because I've been vilified for my answer on some of that, that we only have we have five people in our delegation, correct? Six. Six, okay. Two senators, four house reps. Right. Okay. And you guys are pretty sorry about that. you guys are pretty regular with your meetings, I would say, or your communications. We are Together every day that sessions there in the s house side, and then you've got the the two senators that are pretty much together there. We really don't have let's sit down and talk about issues because you get Democrats, you get Republicans, and that's not gonna happen. Okay. so and I don't know of anybody that does that in Raleigh. But what we do do is get together with everybody here as a delegation. To where we're all on the same sheet of music when we get back to Raleigh and we're working on the issues for Cumberland County. So I guess my question is basically, is there a way for par members of the delegation to not know what's going on? If the is it something you have to actively do or is it something passively you guys are trying to cut the cool kids out? No. actually it there there are times that Nobody knows what I'm doing and or Tom and we're doing our own thing and we're working with other representatives and it doesn't have, you know, a whole lot to do with what we're talking about, or we'll have one group come to us and we're working with that group and the whole delegation does not necessarily get in on that. Okay. Well, as far as from where I was sitting, nine one one, it's a nineteen year old issue and You're talking to a nurse. I'm I'm glad that we are we finally got it something done. Mm-hmm. And I th isn't that the role of the legisl legislature though? Well, if you can't if you're not gonna do it here at home, there are laws and statutes that we can follow and if we're asked to do it, we can do it. But so it's not really like we we took the decision out of our local hands. It's just that we exercised or our county commission exercise its ability to just go to the delegation and say, look, help us out. That's isn't that what they're supposed to do? Yes. Okay. I mean that's what I thought, but I anyway, you can't win them all. So and you you know you do your best and you do and that whole issue for me as a nurse seems so easy. that why would we have two different nine one one dispatchers and you know groups when we could actually have one that knew everything that was going on dispatching, share you know the space. absolutely we want to have joint parks and rec, but we don't want I I think yeah I I think with that argument for nine one one to consolidate or not, I think the bigger argument is does anybody give a damn outside of the elected officials that are in their little fiefdoms sometimes. The citizen doesn't care. I want to call nine one one and get help. I don't give a damn who who's running the center. It's kinda like, look, we elected you to go make decisions. Now go make decisions and let's get this done. Yeah, I gotta go to work. You know, pretty much we gotta make a living here. So I I don't think the citizens took on the mantle of it being an issue for them. Only those that ever called nine one one and got two dispatchers and had, you know, something happen or a delay. but and there just probably aren't that many of those. it just you want the best system you can get and I think that's where the commissioners came from. Okay. Well, I just I want my delegation working, I want them showing up and I want them voting. And my response to some was that look. I'm not trying to lampoon you. I just have your voting record and your attendance and both can be improved. And that was my quote and I'm sticking by it. But there you go. Moving on. I only miss one vote. Yeah. You only miss one vote? Okay. In six years. Yep. Yep. Hell, you even had to buy a different car 'cause you wore one out, didn't you? I did. Did you have to buy it? I did. It transmission blew up after two hundred and fifty thousand miles. And and and with all that money you're making up there, you know, that whole what, fourteen thousand dollars they pay you a year? Yeah. Yes. Not doing it for the money, doing it for the love of community. And you definitely have one of the most excellent LAs up there on Jones Street, I have to admit. Everybody there says that too, by the way. they do. They do. Okay. So you're the incumbent. The Democrats are targeting you hard. So, Ms. Wheatley, you're the incumbent for this district since 2020. why why should somebody want or why how can you be asking for somebody's vote? Why would you want them to come to send you back? What do you more want to do for our community here? What are you working on that you'd like to continue? Well, I'd like to continue to work on healthcare because I believe with our hospital expanding, our community needs to be supporting our hospital and doing everything we can to improve the conditions that are in hospitals and funding. there's just so much going on with you know, we have a medical school. We're seeing a change in the the the view over by the hospital. Even I was the other day saw another big building and I thought, wow, we're really expanding. But we need to support that. And we need to be I think in front of some of the problems that'll be happening and that we're s you know recognizing that and working closely with them. And I think I bring with my nursing background and my business background you know, the expertise to help continue to support that effort and to to help with getting some of the things that we're gonna need for patient care here in our community hospital. Well I I usually don't like bringing up opponents and all, but your opponent has been very vocal about the folks in the country. And I I think I push back with her. I you know, i I I try to keep this a friendly room and I might look, you know, if you live in the middle of BFE, then there's not gonna be a hospital next to you. There, you know, you you have to live where the people are at some point. But do you see a d do you see a deficit with rural health care? There is a deficit if you are looking at having you know, a center near your home. I I'm a country dweller. I live in the middle of a hundred acres. nobody understands unincorporated areas. I've spent so much nine years on the planning board working not only with them, but representing farmers as well, working with agriculture. yes, you you will see the need to making sure that you can get transported to the closest, best healthcare facility if you're having an issue from way out in Beaver Dam. I gotcha. Or if it's you know, you're on it you're way out in Grace Creek. But we're making progress and that's been happening in the last six years in getting mobile units. We've also gotten clinics. Steadman has a clinic wait just a minute now. According to your opponent, there are no mobile clinics or No that's not they they exist. We actually you can see that there are a few out there and they're you know servicing it's not quite the chicken little situation that I was led to believe I don't I don't think so. I think we're making tremendous we still have room to grow. We do, but you know what? We're evolving and we continue to do what's best for our community. And you see physicians, assistants opening little you know, clinic areas like Steadman has one. and there's several others that do Yeah it's like nobody wants to be a doctor anymore. PA is the way to go. Yeah, Less insurance, I guess. Yeah, I guess. But you gotta have a doctor who's overseeing you via. You're still a pretty smart cat if you're a PA. I'm not trying to throw shade on the PAs at all. But and hopefully with our new medical school, we're gonna see some people maybe decide to make Fayeville home. I think and stay. So that is the hope. so so Mrs. Wheelie, you know, you've been here before. as my co host would say, if she were here, she would say the campaigns do not run On a good smile alone, they need money, they need volunteers. So where can somebody find more about your campaign? Well, no, first of all, they can call me and my number's listed on the Board of Elections site, and it's my personal cell phone number. And you can get in touch with me at party headquarters. you can get in touch with me through Raleigh and my legislative assistant, or you can just pull up down, you know, up in my driveway and on Ramsey Street towards Linden, we're we're still fine with it. We have rocking chairs and iced tea. We're not we're not encouraging to come right on in. See, I'm more of a lock and load Republican, I guess. I don't know. I don't know. That wouldn't work for me. But but I I I think as you can see anybody watching that she's pretty accessible. if you don't know her then that's your fault. You have to you have to go where the people are at sometimes. So and for those watching what would what's one thing you'd like them to take away from our our program this afternoon. That being a conservative is someone that really is interested in the people and that we want to help w any way we can. we're not in office for money because there isn't any. And we we're just here to serve and and serve the people. Okay. All right. Well with that we have Representative Diane Wheatley joining us in the cabinet here. Please go to our website, the Carolinacabinet.com. You can find all of our shows. Please, it takes four seconds to just like it and subscribe. And we'll it doesn't cost you a thing, just your four seconds. So until next Monday nights live, I'm Peter Pappas for the Cabinet. Have a good evening.