Republicans are pulling off a quiet coup with the NC Board of Education | Opinion

North Carolina’s Republican state lawmakers are pulling off a quiet coup by eviscerating the board that is supposed to oversee public school policy.

The North Carolina Constitution stipulates that the State Board of Education will “supervise and administer” the state’s public schools. The state superintendent of public instruction serves as a secretary to the board and is supposed to carry out its policies.

But because the board consists mostly of members appointed by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, Republican lawmakers have reduced its staff, shifted power to the Republican superintendent, declined to confirm board members and reduced the board’s oversight by creating a new panel appointed by the legislature to oversee charter schools.

The 13-voting member board – the state treasurer and lieutenant governor are also voting members – is now a shell of itself. Five of the 11 members appointed by the governor are serving in expired terms because the General Assembly has refused to confirm them for another term or confirm their replacements. Three more terms will expire in March of 2025.

Meanwhile, Superintendent of Public Instruction Catherine Truitt has ceased even pretending she must follow the board’s directions. She does what she and Republican legislative leaders want, though that didn’t prevent her from losing the March GOP primary to public school critic Michele Morrow.

State board members are frustrated by the erosion of the board’s power, but are reluctant to speak out. Complaining could provoke the legislature to take more actions to diminish the board.

It’s probably too late for damage control. A Republican bill offered last session proposed a constitutional amendment that would make board members elected rather than appointed and would install the superintendent as the chairman. That may surface again.

Electing the board would blow up the constitution’s intent in establishing the board. The intent is that a governor should use the mandate of his statewide election to appoint board members with expertise in education and an interest in what’s best for public schools. Making the board elected would politicize its function and put partisan interests ahead of what’s best for the state’s 1.5 million public schoolchildren.

That result, however, would be welcomed by Republican legislative leaders. In their zeal for expanding school choice they have abandoned interest in improving school oversight. Their expansion of school vouchers, for instance, comes with virtually no requirements that schools receiving the vouchers meet state standards.

As Ferrel Guillory, a founder of Education NC, a public schools advocacy group, wrote last month: “The General Assembly has embraced a ‘choice’ agenda in its approach to private, charter, and traditional public schools. Does North Carolina have a sufficient ‘quality’ agenda and a driving determination to minimize low-performing schools and to maximize high-performing schools?”

The disregard for oversight may lead Republican lawmakers to a conundrum. They empowered the superintendent on the assumption that Truitt would win another term, but Morrow’s winning the nomination puts a Republican victory in doubt. Mo Green, the Democratic nominee, could be the next superintendent.

Green is ready to work with the board as the constitution directs. “I would work in a collaborative fashion with the State Board of Education to advance achievement for all students in public schools,” he said.

Morrow supports making State Board of Education members elected, but she said she will work with an appointed board. “I’m happy to partner with State Board members who want to give families what they need from our public schools,” she said.

But the Republican nominee sounded unlikely to be cooperative with board members who do not share her view that families are ill-served by public schools as they exist today. Morrow said, “Upholding the status quo of a broken system that doesn’t work for families won’t be an option for my administration.”

In the event of a Green victory, GOP lawmakers will scramble to dismantle what they built for Truitt, but they won’t want to give power back to the board. That will give rise to legislation cutting the superintendent’s power to the detriment of those who are the pawns in all this gamesmanship, the schoolchildren of North Carolina.

Clarification: An earlier version of this column truncated Michele’s Morrow’s response. It has been expanded here to reflect her willingness to work with the State Board of Education.

This story was originally published April 4, 2024 at 4:30 AM.