Even though Gov. Beverly Perdue has decided not to run for re-election, restoring the three-quarter-cent sales tax for public education as she has proposed must be part of the next budget.

We urge the Democratic governor to accept Republican Senate leader Phil Berger’s challenge to a debate over the sales tax. A debate would help her articulate the need to restore some funding to education, and expose the GOP as weak without a plan to save public education.

Two weeks ago, Perdue issued her plan to restore three-quarters of a cent sales tax that expired after last year’s budget was adopted.

“Education is the key to our children’s future and to North Carolina’s economic future,” she said. “Investing in education is central to our ability to attract new jobs and businesses to our state.”

Predictably, Republicans immediately smirked at the idea and called it another tax increase from the Democratic governor.

Berger, followed by Republican House Speaker Thom Tillis, issued a challenge to Perdue.

“Let’s give the people of North Carolina the opportunity to hear you articulate your rationale for why increasing taxes is the right thing to do at this time,” Berger said. “And I will be in a position to articulate the position that the Legislature has taken at this time, that that’s not the right thing to do.”

But Perdue spokeswoman Christine Mackey said Perdue declined the invitation, calling the challenge an attempt to divert attention from their woeful budget.

“They should stand up and take responsibility for passing a budget that eliminated more than 1,700 teacher positions and nearly 2,300 teacher assistant positions this year,” she said.

Berger even went so far as to suggest Perdue proposed restoring the tax as part of her re-election campaign, accusing her of picking a fight with the Legislature.

But when Perdue announced Thursday that she would not be seeking re-election, it was clear that picking another fight with the Republicans in the Legislature was the last thing she wanted.

“As anyone who knows me will tell you, I do not back down from tough fights,” Perdue said. “But I understand this. We live in highly partisan times, where some people seem more worried about scoring political points than working together to address the real challenges our state faces.

“And it is clear to me that my race for re-election will only further politicize the fight to adequately fund our schools.”

Perdue is still our governor, and we still expect her to be a fighter for all the right causes. That is why she should reverse course and accept the invitation to debate the Republicans over the three-quarter-cent sales tax restoration she has proposed.

With no more federal stimulus money for education to count on, and a Republican General Assembly that looks to gut public education even further, now is the right time to decide where we want North Carolina to move — forward, or backward.

North Carolina has already fallen to 49th in the nation in per-pupil funding, according to the N.C. Association of School Administrators.

“The legislature’s budget has hurt education at all levels — from pre-K all the way through higher education — and has led to higher class sizes and the loss of thousands of teacher and teaching assistant positions,” Perdue said. “And their budget forces even more teacher layoffs next year. We must act to prevent these additional cuts.”

The three-quarter-cent sales tax would prevent additional cuts.

The GOP majority in the General Assembly had pledged to let expire a penny sales tax that Democrats had passed in 2009 at the height of the recession, according to the Associated Press. Perdue had offered last year to set the sales tax at 7.5 percent, instead allowing the full penny to expire on time at a cost of more than $1 billion in lost revenue.

Restoration of three-quarters of a penny sales tax would raise the sales tax in most counties from 6.75 cents back to 7.5 cents. It would generate an estimated $864 million in revenue for the year starting in July.

Mayors from Elizabeth City, Hertford and Winfall have joined 50 other North Carolina mayors in signing a letter supporting the tax restoration.

“We know that education is the key to our children’s future and to North Carolina’s economic future,” the letter states.

“The reality is we have had a lot of cuts to public education and the community colleges and the university system,” Elizabeth City Mayor Joe Peel said.

Local school officials also declared their support of Perdue’s proposal.

“All of our board members are in support of the governor’s request to raise the three-quarter-cent sales tax,” said Sandy Kinzel, assistant superintendent in Currituck. “The revenue generated by this tax will be essential in funding schools for the upcoming year(s) given the loss of federal funding we are facing.”

Add to that an 8.5 percent tuition increase that the University of North Carolina Board of Governors has recommended for all state schools, and the picture becomes even bleaker.

Let Berger and Tillis explain why a good education for all in North Carolina is not constitutional. Let them explain why rising tuition costs and reduced state funding affects education for an increasing number of middle and lower class students who can’t afford it any more or are left tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt.

Let them explain why only the wealthiest of North Carolina citizens should be privileged to get a first-rate education.