November 30, 2024

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Hurricane Relief that Wasn't

In the few short days of their November session, the legislative majority
overrode Governor Cooper’s veto of HB10 to add hundreds of millions to
private school voucher funding and also pushed through Senate Bill 382
titled “Disaster Relief - 3/Budget/Various Law Changes. Lawmakers in the
House were given less than two hours to read the 131-page bill before
debating and voting on it. The Senate passed the bill the next day.

Governor Cooper vetoed SB 382 on Tuesday.

Despite its title, SB 382 provides very little in the way of disaster
relief. It moves $227 million from the state savings reserve (which
contains several billion dollars) to the Helene Fund. However, the bill
only appropriates $2 million for technical consultation for soil and water
districts affected by the hurricane (in another section of the bill),
leaving the remaining $225 sitting in the fund until the legislature takes
further action.

The bill’s text reads…"the State Controller shall transfer the sum of two
hundred twenty-seven million dollars ($227,000,000) from the Savings
Reserve to the Helene Fund and, except as otherwise provided in this act,
the funds shall remain unspent until appropriated by an act of the General
Assembly. It is the intent of the General Assembly to review funding and to
consider actions needed to address remaining unmet needs."

Other sections of the bill allocate $25 million for debris removal and
nearly $34 million for child center grants to help facilities affected by
the hurricane to remain open.

And that’s all for new disaster relief in November.

In previous sessions, the legislature unanimously passed two disaster
relief bills totaling $877 million. In a sharp departure from the previous
disaster relief bills, SB 382 was light on disaster relief and heavy on an
assortment of unrelated law changes that the majority party wants to push
through before losing their veto-proof majority.

The apparent lack of urgency to get funds out to devastated communities
frustrated some GOP lawmakers who did not vote for the bill. Will they keep
their resolve?

In contrast, the HB10 veto override ensures that private school voucher
programs will receive $487 million from this year’s funds and hundreds of
millions more in designated funds over the next decade. The millions for
private schools this year add to what was already budgeted, bringing the
total available for both voucher programs to $616 million in the 2024-25
school year alone.

Instead of disaster relief, the majority of SB 382 addresses “Various Law
Changes.” Key changes affecting education reduce the authority of the
recently elected state Superintendent of Public Instruction Mo Green.
Another advances a program developed under Superintendent Truitt that
provides avenues for teachers to earn higher salaries through advanced
teaching roles:
* Removes the ability for the state superintendent to appeal a final
decision of the state’s charter schools review board regarding grants,
renewals or revocations.
* Transfers the Center for Safer Schools from the Department of Public
Instruction to the State Bureau of Investigation.
* Removes the superintendent’s authority over school resource officer
grants, instead moving it to the executive director of the Center for Safer
Schools.
* Creates a program under the State Board of Education to develop
“advanced teaching roles” and to link “performance and professional
growth” to salary increases in select districts.

Another major section of SB 382 addresses changes to election law:
* Removes the authority for making appointments to the State Board of
Elections and the power to appoint chairs of county election boards from
the governor to the state auditor.
* Shortens the amount of time from a week to 2.5 days after Election Day
that a voter has to correct their absentee ballot. It also gives just 2.5
days for cured ballots (ballots with minor errors such as not signing the
ballot that can be fixed so the vote is counted) to be documented and
counted. Currently, the curing process is given more than a week.
* Requires all absentee ballots to be counted on election night and all
provisional ballots within three business days after Election Day.
* Shortens the amount of time for documentation of cured ballots to be
received, from more than a week to two and a half days.
* Shortens by one week the deadline for voters to request a simultaneous
absentee application and absentee ballot.

Lawmakers return to Raleigh on Monday, December 2. They will likely seek to
override Governor Cooper's veto of SB 382. These are not legislative
actions that make our democracy stronger or more fair. Many say these acts
ignore the voters and simply grab power by the majority leaders. Talk to
your legislator, let them know how you feel about these efforts to reduce
the power of your vote. Find your legislator [7]HERE.

Students Lose Rights with Vouchers

Two facts little-known by the general public are:

1) the federal government, through the Individual with Disabilities
Education Act (IDEA), ensures students with disabilities the right to a
Free and Appropriate Education (FAPE) and 2) North Carolina’s voucher
program nullifies this right for students and families who choose to leave
the public school system.

North Carolina has two voucher programs. The Opportunity Scholarship
voucher program is open to all students and pays tuition directly to the
private school. The ESA+ program is designed only for students with a
documented disability. It pays tuition directly to a private school and/or
gives funds directly to families via an online account called ClassWallet.
The funds may be used for tuition at private schools that are not eligible
to receive tuition directly from the state or for other education expenses
such as tutoring, instructional programs, etc.

However, ONLY PUBLIC SCHOOLS are required by law to provide a Free and
Appropriate Education (FAPE) for students with disabilities. State law
governing vouchers could require voucher-receiving schools to follow the
provisions of IDEA, but NC legislators have not yet provided special
education students with that protection.

Parents who elect to opt out of public school must sign the [8]ESA+ Program
Parental Agreement Form which releases the local school district from all
obligation to provide the special services that they would be legally
entitled to if the student were enrolled in public school.

Parents who choose to enroll full-time in a non-public school or decide to
home school their child must sign the [9]Release of Local Education Agency
form which states, “By signing this Release of Local Education Agency
(“Release”), I am acknowledging my understanding that children who are
placed in an ESA+ Eligible School full-time by their parents do not have a
right to receive all of the special education and related services that
they would receive if enrolled in the public schools.”

Why should we give our tax dollars to private schools that do not accept or
educate all children? We are undermining and destroying public schools and
leaving them without the funds to care for our special needs children every
time we take students and funding from our public schools. Instead we
should be strengthening ONE unified system of public education that serves
all children.

More Segregation Academies in NC than in MS

Last week's newsletter highlighted ProPublica's report showing how[10]
[11]NC funds segregation academies through the voucher program. This latest
installment focuses on MS where segregation academies also survive as
beneficiaries of state funding.

Reporters found 20 existing segregation academies in MS, far fewer than the
39 they identified in NC.

The pro-voucher argument put forth by supporters in MS in 1964 is nearly
identical to what we hear from pro-voucher supporters in NC today.

Segregation Academies in Mississippi Are Benefiting From Public Dollars, as
They Did in the 1960s

By Jennifer Berry Hawes and Mollie Simon

On May 14, the final day for submitting new bills in the Mississippi
Legislature, a bold new package of them landed on the desks of Mississippi
lawmakers. The plans called for the creation of a voucher program that paid
for students to attend private schools.

A few weeks later, in the heat of mid-June, the governor urged lawmakers to
support the $40 million program, promising it “will bear the sound fruit of
progress for a hundred years after this generation is gone.” Public school
support would continue, he assured. But vouchers would “strengthen the
total educational effort” by giving children “the right to choose the
educational environment they desire.”

It was 1964.

Key backers of the move included a group of white segregationists that had
formed after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled state-mandated public school
segregation unconstitutional.

Across the South, courts had already rejected or limited similar voucher
plans in Alabama, Louisiana, Virginia and Arkansas. But Mississippi
lawmakers plowed forward anyway and adopted the program. For several years,
the state funneled money to white families eager for their children to
attend new private academies opening as the first Black children arrived in
previously all-white public schools.

[12]READ MORE

Legislative and SBE Updates

On Monday, December 2 both chambers convene again in Raleigh.
* Senate session ([13]audio)
* House session ([14]livestream)

Teaching in the US versus the Rest of the World

Teachers in the United States have a uniquely challenging job. This short
video from a few years ago shares some major differences between teaching
in the U.S. and the rest of the world. And teaching has become even more
challenging in the U.S. since this video was created. The pandemic and
culture wars have put more stress than ever on our educators. This video
shows clearly where policy can change to make our system better. But we
need legislative support!

[15]video

In Case You Missed It

[16]NC GOP lawmakers let down disabled students by funding private school
vouchers

[17]School bus driver shortage: Durham parents must drive students to
school 1 day per week in December

[18]For Wake students who don't have money for lunch, new grant helps pay
for them to eat

[19]Mississippi supporters of public funds for private schools face blow
post election

NEW Webinar: Protecting Our Public Schools!

In the first webinar in a three-part series, Education Law Center experts
discussed private education vouchers and what to expect during the second
Trump administration, as well as concrete steps to take to protect public
schools and defend their role as the cornerstone of democracy.

The webinar was moderated by ELC Executive Director Bob Kim and featured
Professor Josh Cowen, ELC Visiting Senior Fellow and author of The
Privateers: How Billionaires Created a Culture War and Sold School
Vouchers, and Jessica Levin, ELC Litigation Director and Director of
[20]Public Funds, Public Schools. 

Watch the recording [21]HERE.

Words to Remember

"Millions of families of color, as well as poor whites, stand to lose as
they truly have no choice other than to enroll their children in
underfunded, segregated schools...Choice has provided a safety net for some
but the majority are in peril." — Jon Hale, The Choice We Face p. 165

Help us support public schools!

Public Schools First NC is a statewide nonpartisan, 501(c)(3) nonprofit
focused solely

on pre-K to 12 public education issues. We collaborate with parents,
teachers, business and civic leaders, and communities across North Carolina
to advocate for one unified system of public education that prepares each
child for productive citizenship.

[22]DONATE HERE

[23]www.publicschoolsfirstnc.org

Questions? Contact us today at [email protected]

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