April 16, 2025

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Take Action to STOP these BAD Bills

The long session has brought with it plenty of good bills and even more BAD
bills. Some of the BAD bills are moving through committees and need to be
stopped in their tracks. We highlight two below and provide ideas for
ACTION.

1) [7]House Bill 806 “Public School Operational Relief” The bill will make
conditions worse for both students and teachers!

The bill has two main provisions that would damage public schools’ quality
and working conditions.
* CLASS SIZES WILL INCREASE. The bill would eliminate current class size
limitations for K, 1, 2, 3. Currently class size is restricted by law to 16
or 18 students, depending on the grade. Decades of research has shown that
the early grades are absolutely essential for building a strong foundation
in math and literacy. This bill would remove the class size limits and
would allow underfunded districts to pack classrooms and hire fewer
teachers. More students in these early grades will very likely lead to less
learning in critical years.
* TEACHER QUALITY WILL DECREASE. Currently in North Carolina, all
traditional public school teachers must have a teaching license or be
pursuing a license at an approved Educator Preparation Program (EPP). The
bill would reduce this requirement to only 50% of the teachers in a school,
bringing traditional public schools down to the level required of charter
school staff (private schools have no requirement at all, even if they
accept tax-payer funded tuition vouchers). The remaining 50% of teachers
will only be required to be at least 18 years old, college graduates, and
take a preservice training in how to identify students with disabilities
and manage classroom behavior.

Please contact your legislators to urge them to vote NO on this bill. We
should fully fund our schools and require our teachers to be fully
licensed!

Public Schools First NC has created a sample letter for you to send that
you can personalize with your own message. It will be sent only to the
legislators who represent you.

[8]Send a Letter about H806 (Class Size, Teacher Qualifications)

House Bill 806 will be discussed at the [9]House Education Committee K-12
on Wednesday at 4:00 p.m. You can watch the discussion live. (See the
committee page for the live stream link.)

In advance of the meeting, we encourage you to contact the committee
members to urge them to vote NO on advancing the bill.

2) [10]House Bill 636 “Promoting Wholesome Content for Students” allows
censorship of school libraries and allows any person in the community
served by the school district to file legal action against the district.

Despite all schools already having a process for selecting and reviewing
library books, this bill sets out the specific requirements for every
public school library media (including books) adoption process. The
districts have to establish a community library advisory committee made up
of 5 staff and 5 parents/community members.

The bill states that materials may only be approved if they support student
learning and the standard course of study; meet high literary, artistic,
and aesthetic quality; are appropriate for the age, grade level,
intellectual development and ability level of the students who will have
access to the library. The bill further states that material is NOT
appropriate for ANY age or grade level if it includes descriptions or
visual depictions of sexual activity or is pervasively vulgar. These are
subjective criteria and may lead to massive censorship.

ANY COMMUNITY MEMBER SERVED BY THE DISTRICT CAN LODGE A COMPLAINT. The
community member doesn’t have to be a parent/guardian of a student at the
school or even be related to a student. If the superintendent receives 10
or more complaints about one media item (e.g. book, film), it must be
reviewed by the community library advisory committee.

The district must create a publicly available list of all rejected items
and publish it on their website.

ANY COMMUNITY MEMBER COULD TAKE LEGAL ACTION AGAINST THE DISTRICT. This
bill allows any community member to file a complaint about library
materials and then file a cause of action if they are dissatisfied with the
result. The school district would have to pay up to $5,000 in damages as
well as the person’s legal fees and other fees assigned by the court.

Please contact your legislators to urge them to vote NO on this bill. We
should trust our educational professionals to make appropriate choices for
learning.

[11]Send a Letter about H636 (Libraries)

House Bill 636 advanced through the [12]House Education Committee K-12 on
Tuesday, April 15 despite very strong objections by some members. Members
may have additional opportunities to vote on this bill, so we encourage you
to contact them and urge a NO vote if it comes up again.

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.

DONATE HERE

[13]www.publicschoolsfirstnc.org

Questions? Contact us today at [email protected]

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