Dear Friend,

Earlier this week, news broke of the surprising decision made by a Democrat NC House member to switch parties. Effectively, this now gives Republicans a veto-proof majority. Since 2018, Republicans have been unable to override Governor Cooper’s veto, effectively blocking major legislation from passing. However, this explosive political story changes our state’s political landscape significantly.

Given the news, it’s easy to overlook another major story that greatly impacts our state: last week the NC House unveiled its $30 billion budget.

The state budget covers two years worth of state expenses, and the NC House is expected to vote on it soon. It will then turn up promptly in the Senate for a vote. Overall, this article by Spectrum News 1 does a decent job of capturing 5 things that you should know about the budget: it contains: 1) teacher and state employee pay raises (10% teacher pay raise, 2% school bus driver raise, 7.5% state employee raise, etc); 2) infrastructure budgeting ($2 billion local water and sewer project, $3.6 for billion for roads and transportation, etc); 3) tax cuts (personal income, budget franchise or privilege, and other industry specific tax cuts); 4) other budgeted provisions (making the SBI an independent agency, blocking institutions from requiring COVID-19 vaccines, etc); and 5) Medicaid expansion (health care extension for an estimated 600,000 people in NC).

Arguably, it’s the inclusion of that 5th item that catches the most political attention. Since becoming Governor, Medicaid expansion has been one of Cooper’s top priorities. Whereas he has vetoed budget bills in the past, the addition of the expansion makes it likely that the governor will sign the budget this year.

That gives us reason to pause and assess what other notable items are within the budget, especially as they relate to our pro-life, pro-family, and pro-freedom values. After digging through the 416-page document, we’ve discovered a number of them, which we’ve organized into three categories: 1) pregnancy care center funding, 2) adoption of instructional material and a parents’ right to know, and 3) other pro-values budgetary items.

We have outlined and summarized relevant items in those three categories as follows: 

1. Pregnancy Care Centers (pages 215-217)
   • The Carolina Pregnancy Care Fellowship (CPCF—the association of pregnancy care centers across NC) will receive $12.5 million in funding for the 2-year budget cycle. That is an increase of $6.27 million from the last 2-year budget cycle.
   • The Human Coalition will receive $10 million in funding for the 2-year budget cycle for expansion of its Continuum of Care Program. This represents an increase of $3.6 million from the last 2-year budget cycle.
2. Adoption of Instructional Materials (pages 50-57):
   • The Budget sets up a new procedure for adoption of instructional materials in public schools and specifically addresses materials for health and safety programs, which include:
     • reproductive health and safety
     • mental and emotional health
     • growth and development
     • anti-bullying programs
   • Requires a public hearing for adopting, modifying, or amending a health and safety program. Must give 60 days written and electronic notice to parents with an opportunity to review the new program materials.
   • Requires a repository—that the objectives, entire curricula, texts, and all other materials be maintained in a central location in the school for in-person review by the parents and the public.
   • Requires that the objectives, names of curricula, texts, or other materials be posted on the school website for review by parents and the public, including links to the materials.
   • Each school year, parents must be notified 14 days in advance of instruction on health and safety programs of their right to review the materials.
   • Requires local school systems to establish a community media advisory committee to evaluate challenges to instructional materials on the grounds that they are unfit materials because either they are obscene, are not age-appropriate, or are not aligned with the standard course of study.
   • Requires local school boards to develop policies for parents to consent or for parents to withhold their consent to the student’s participation in health and safety programs offered by the school system.
   • Requires 14 days’ notice to parents before students participate in health and safety programs, informing them of the policy and including a form for parents to exercise their rights under the policy.
3. Other Items:
   • Prevents COVID vaccine mandates in K-12 schools, colleges and universities.
   • Creates a $2,000 adoption tax credit per child.
   • Creates paid parental leave for state public school employees who give birth to a child, adopt a child, or become a foster parent.
   • Greatly expands the eligibility and funding for the Opportunity Scholarship (the state-funded voucher program allowing parents to choose the best school for their children, including private schools). For 2023-24 the appropriation is 27% higher than originally planned. And the funding was expanded for every year into the future.

Over many years, we have worked hard on a number of these items, and are thrilled to see them included, especially given the likelihood of its passage. If you support the hard work we are doing to represent your pro-life, pro-family, and pro-religious freedom values in lobbying legislators, would you consider becoming a monthly supporter, or making a needed one-time monthly donation today?

Sincerely,

Tami Fitzgerald,
NC Values