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) 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.

House Bill 806 will be discussed at the 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) 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.

House Bill 636 advanced through the 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.

Questions? Contact us today at [email protected]