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October 11, 2025

[1]www.publicschoolsfirstnc.org
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Why No State Budget? Ask the Budget Conferees

With the North Carolina General Assembly out of town more often than not
since July, it’s hard to know exactly what’s happening with budget
negotiations.

However, we do know which House and Senate members are officially charged
with crafting the 2025-27 budget. The group is titled [7]Conferees for SB
257 - 2025 Appropriations Act and includes members from both parties.
However, most conferees are Republican, reflecting their majorities in both
the Senate and House.

The conferees have the task of bringing together the House’s budget
proposal, the Senate’s budget proposal, and hopefully key elements of
Governor Stein’s budget proposal into a two-year budget that serves all
North Carolinians.

News reports have identified several reasons for the current budget
impasse:

Medicaid funding - The Senate supports a bill that includes funds for a
[8]new children's hospital near Apex. The House proposal keeps funding for
the hospital and funding for Medicaid separate. Due to the stalemate,
Medicaid reimbursement rate [9]cuts went into effect on October 1.

Tax cuts - Legislation passed in 2023 set a schedule to reduce corporate
and individual income tax rates. For example, the corporate income tax rate
is scheduled to drop to ZERO within a few years. Due to inflation slowing
revenue, the [10]House wants to adjust legislation to slow the tax cuts.
Senate leadership wants to keep or even accelerate the cuts.

Teacher and state employee salaries - The [11]House proposal gives
substantially more money to state employees and educators than the Senate
proposal. In addition to increasing starting teacher salaries to $50,000 by
2026-27, the average salary increase for teachers would be 8.7%. State
employees would see at least 2.5% more. The Senate offered an average
teacher salary increase of 3.3% and a $3,000 bonus spread over two years.
[12]State employees get increases of just 1.25%.

North Carolina and Pennsylvania are the only states that haven’t yet passed
a budget. North Carolina’s fiscal year started July 1, so our state budget
is more than three months overdue.

Without a new budget, school districts, state agencies, and other
organizations that rely on state funding are left to operate at last year's
funding levels. Rising costs alone are creating shortfalls across the
state.

There seems to be no sense of urgency among majority lawmakers to finalize
a budget, despite the fact that it is one of their primary functions. The
House and Senate convene again on October 20, but no budget meetings have
been posted on the [13]legislative calendar.

Contact the budget conferees directly to share your concerns. On our
[14]Engage - Contact Elected Officials page, Public Schools First NC has
created several letters you can send to the committee members. You can also
[15]create a letter entirely from scratch and send it to the committee
members.

Voucher Funds Draining Rural Communities

North Carolina's private schools have received a funding windfall through
the state's voucher programs. Since the program started, private schools
have received more than $1.2 billion in taxpayer-funded tuition payments.
Lawmakers could have instead chosen to direct the funds to public schools
where they benefit students across the state.

The voucher funds have primarily gone to urban and suburban counties,
draining much-needed funds from rural areas.

In other words, the voucher program is worsening the conditions that led to
the [16]Leandro case being filed more than 30 years ago - when school
districts in low-wealth areas sued the state for equitable funding.

The NC Supreme Court is scheduled to release another set of rulings at the
end of October. Will the court uphold its 2022 ruling that the state was
required to fulfill its constitutional obligation to provide a sound basic
education through a system of free public schools?

See the voucher funds by county at this [17]interactive map.

Legislative and SBE Updates

The full Senate and House return to Raleigh on Monday, October 20. In the
meantime, a few committees are meeting.

10/14 - 9:00 a.m. Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Medicaid
([18]Stream)

10/14 - 1:30 p.m. Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Health and Human
Services ([19]Stream)

Check the [20]legislative calendar for updates as meeting dates and times
may change.

Don't Miss Our Webinar!

Wednesday, October 22, 7 - 8 p.m. We are excited to announce that we will
be hosting a special event with Dr. Diane Ravitch to discuss her new book,
published by Columbia University Press, [21]An Education: How I Changed My
Mind About Schools and Almost Everything Else. You don't want to miss this
great conversation.

With honesty and grace, Diane retraces her journey from her Houston
childhood to her service in the government, including a stint in the
Department of Education, and her eventual transformation into one of our
fiercest defenders of public schools. Blending personal reflection with a
historian’s rigor, Diane explains how she came to embrace equity,
professional teachers, and democratic public education, becoming an
inspiring activist whose life’s work continues to uplift the promise of our
public schools. There will be time allowed for Q&A.

Make a tax-deductible donation to Public Schools First NC and we will mail
you a copy of this wonderful book! Your donation helps us keep working to
protect and strengthen our public schools. [22]Donate

[23]REGISTER HERE

National News

[24]Last week's newsletter detailed the likely impact of the federal
government shutdown on North Carolina public schools.

Although the immediate impact may be minimal, a shutdown that extends
beyond three months will severely harm students who rely on child nutrition
programs.

Use the templates on our [25]Contact Elected Officials page to customize an
email to U.S. senators and representatives. They can help resolve the
stalemate!

Making NC Schools the Best in the Nation

Pillar 6 of [26]Achieving Educational Excellence: 2025-30 Strategic Plan
for North Carolina Public Schools is Lead Transformational Change.

At the heart of this pillar is a commitment to research and development
that sparks educational reimagining through thoughtful innovation. NCDPI
will serve as both catalyst and facilitator, establishing networks that
transcend boundaries between traditional public schools, charter schools
and lab schools, sharing promising practices and scaling effective
innovations.

Pillar 6 includes three measures of success:
* Establish a baseline and decrease the number of identified low
performing schools and PSUs annually.
* Establish a baseline and increase PSU use of assessment tools that
provide timely, actionable information and multiple measures of learning.
* Establish a baseline and increase the number of active NCDPI, Public
School Units and partner networks collaborating on the implementation of
Strategic Plan actions.

To achieve these goals, the plan identities actions grouped into four focus
areas. Each focus area includes multiple actions and target completion
dates. One example action is shown for each focus area:

Transform schools through research and development. Create a cross-sector
Innovation Leadership Council (charter, district and lab school leaders,
along with NCDPI staff) to guide knowledge transfer and scaleup. (January
2026)

Connect North Carolina public schools through education networks. Create
and maintain shared resources, assets and digital tools for use by
education networks, enabling districts and schools to accelerate strategic
initiatives and replicate effective practices . (September 2026)

Promote integrated support systems for schools and districts. Explore
strategies, including how to creatively use currently available funding
allotments, to recruit and retain highly effective teachers and principals
to work in low-performing schools and districts. (June 2026)

Explore accountability and funding reform. Explore reforms to North
Carolina’s school funding model to ensure allocations are transparent,
flexible and based on student needs. (November 2026)

Superintendent Green is traveling around the state to share the plan and
engage stakeholders. Find locations and times at the [27]NCDPI website
(scroll down the page to Regional Tour). On Thursday, October 16,
Superintendent Green will be in the Piedmont-Triad region. 

In the Wake of Violence, Threats to Teachers Are Also Threats to NC Public
Schools

By Tamika Walker Kelly, elementary school music teacher from Cumberland
County and the current President of the North Carolina Association of
Educators.

As a teacher, I believe classrooms are safe havens for our children to
learn, dream, and grow without fear. That’s why it has been deeply
disturbing that in recent weeks, instead of uniting around how to keep
schools safe, opponents of public education have chosen to exploit recent
acts of violence — both here in North Carolina and across the country — to
sow division and fear.

Rather than focusing on healing and preventing future violence, some voices
have been using these horrific events to spread fear, intimidate educators,
and even threaten our livelihoods. Unfortunately, many schools and school
districts across North Carolina have buckled to political threats by firing
school staff or placing them on leave for exercising their freedom of
speech by commenting on social media about these events — including
incidents in Mecklenburg and Gaston counties.

Let me be clear: threats against teachers are consequential to our
children. They undermine the trust and stability students need to learn. No
educator should ever face harassment, violence or doxxing, the sharing of
private information for intimidation, for doing their job, and no student
should ever sit in a classroom clouded by fear.

[28]READ MORE

In Case You Missed It

[29]Person County Superintendent Wins 2026 NC Superintendent of the Year
Award

[30]Advanced Teaching Roles program shows improved test scores, but faces
funding concerns

[31]North Carolina child fatality group links social media algorithms, AI
chat bots to suicide risks

[32]Book Bans Are 'Common and Rampant." So Are Educators and Parents
Fighting Them

[33]As the LGBTQ Youth Population Doubles, Number of Bills Targeting Them
Triples

Did You Know?

Firearms are the leading cause of injury-related death for children and
youth in NC?

Nearly 30% of NC high school students surveyed said it would take them less
than an hour to get a loaded gun without a parent's or other adult's
permission.

Learn more about [34]keeping students SAFE from firearms!

Mark Your Calendar!

Multiple Dates, 7:00-8:30 pm: Resilience and ACES. Learn about Adverse
Childhood Experiences (ACES) and resilience. Join us for this
award-winning, 60-minute film, Resilience: The Biology of Stress & The
Science of Hope. This documentary examines how abuse, neglect, and other
adverse childhood experiences affect children’s development & health
outcomes in adulthood. This powerful movie is a conversation starter and a
perspective changer.

[35]REGISTER HERE

All screenings are on Thursday and include time for discussion. Invite a
friend and contact us about setting up a private screening for your school
staff, PTA, civic group, church, or synagogue.
* October 23, 2025
* January 22, 2026
* February 26, 2026
* March 26, 2026

Words to Remember

"Local public schools cannot be treated as a political bargaining chip when
education is the foundation of our democracy and the gateway to opportunity
for every child."

— Bill Harrison, former chair of the NC State Board of Education
(2009-2013)

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.

[36]DONATE HERE

[37]www.publicschoolsfirstnc.org

Questions? Contact us today at [email protected]

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