What does the NC budget mean for education? Voucher money, pandemic help and more
More taxpayer money would go to help North Carolina families pay for private school, and public schools would be shielded from losing state money for having fewer students this year, under a new state budget proposal.
Traditional public schools still haven’t recovered from the steep enrollment drop that took place last school year during the coronavirus pandemic. But the new state budget developed by Republican lawmakers and released Monday would continue to fund school districts at their pre-pandemic enrollment levels, forestalling a potential $132 million cut this year.
The state funds school districts and charter schools based on the number of students they have. The General Assembly is keeping the “hold harmless” provision it included for schools last year.
The Republican-led General Assembly will vote on the budget this week, and Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper announced Tuesday he would sign it despite concerns about portions of the spending plan.
Here are some of the education-related items in budget proposal:
More Leandro funding
GOP lawmakers are still at odds with a state judge over a plan that he says will help the state meet its constitutional obligation to provide students with a sound basic education.
Last week, Superior Court Judge David Lee ordered the state to transfer $1.7 billion from its reserves to fully fund the first two years of the remedial action plan tied to the long-running Leandro court case on education funding. GOP legislative leaders say Lee has no authority to order the transfer of money.
The new budget funds more parts of the Leandro plan than prior versions, but not all of the proposal. For instance, the budget includes new items such as state funding to supplement the pay given to teachers in low-wealth school districts.
But the budget calls for a 2.5% average raise this year for teachers instead of the 5% raise called for in the Leandro plan.
More voucher funds for private schools
The budget expands who can get taxpayer funding to attend private schools and increases how much money they could receive.
Currently, the state provides up to $4,200 per student for low-to-middle-income families who use Opportunity Scholarships to attend private schools. The budget would change the voucher to 90% of the amount the state spends per year per public school student. GOP lawmakers have estimated the new annual voucher amount would be $5,850.
The budget would raise the income eligibility to include families making up to 175% of the amount needed to qualify for the federal free-or-reduced-priced lunch program. That’s $85,794 a year for a family of four.
The current eligibility limit is 150%.
The budget also provides an additional $15 million each year to the voucher program, raising the amount provided in the 2023-24 fiscal year to $120.5 million.
The expansion comes as opponents have filed a lawsuit saying the program is unconstitutional, in part because it provides funding to schools that discriminate against students or their families on religious grounds, The News & Observer previously reported.
Helping charter schools
The budget has provisions designed to help charter schools, which are taxpayer-funded schools that are exempt from some of the rules traditional public schools must follow. The provisions would:
▪ Ease the requirements for charter school operators to quickly get new schools approved. The budget says they’d have to demonstrate that the majority — but not all — of their existing charter schools are doing better academically than the surrounding school district to get fast-track approval from the State Board of Education.
▪ Require municipalities to grant water and sewer service to charter schools. Lawmakers have cited how the Durham City Council refused to extend utilities to a new charter school.
Require Holocaust education
The budget requires the State Board of Education to include instruction on the Holocaust and genocide in the English and social studies standards used in middle schools and high schools.
Supporters say it’s needed because some people still deny that the Nazis killed millions of Jews, Roma and other people they considered to be undesirable.
There’s been a nationwide push to require public schools to teach about the Holocaust. Language requiring Holocaust education has been included in past state budgets.
Ends charging teachers for personal days
The budget ends the requirement that teachers pay for a substitute teacher to cover their classes when they take personal leave on a school day. To get this exemption, teachers would need to give their principal a reason for the personal day.
Teachers have historically been required to pay $50 whenever they use a personal day. This has caused teachers to use sick days instead even though they’re not sick to avoid paying the sub charge.
Teachers have complained for years about having to pay for the sub. But some teachers object to how lawmakers would want them to give a reason for taking a personal day.
No mandate to post lesson plans online
Some items from prior versions of the budget that were dropped include:
▪ Requiring teachers to post lesson plans online.
▪ Requiring school districts to create committees where the public could challenge instructional materials used in schools.
▪ Withholding state funding for salaries of superintendents whose school districts aren’t teaching cursive handwriting and multiplication tables.
▪ Removing wording from state law that inappropriate language, noncompliance, dress code violations and minor physical alterations are not examples of serious student discipline violations.
For more North Carolina government and politics news, listen to the Under the Dome politics podcast from The News & Observer and the NC Insider. You can find it at link.chtbl.com/underthedomenc or wherever you get your podcasts.
This story was originally published November 15, 2021 at 6:32 PM with the headline "What does the NC budget mean for education? Voucher money, pandemic help and more."
