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 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. |
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News reports have identified several reasons for the current budget impasse: Medicaid funding - The Senate supports a bill that includes funds for a 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 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 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 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. 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 legislative calendar. Contact the budget conferees directly to share your concerns. On our Engage - Contact Elected Officials page, Public Schools First NC has created several letters you can send to the committee members. You can also create a letter entirely from scratch and send it to the committee members. |
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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 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 interactive map. |
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Legislative and SBE Updates |
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| 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 (Stream) 10/14 - 1:30 p.m. Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Health and Human Services (Stream) Check the legislative calendar for updates as meeting dates and times may change. |
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| 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, 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. Donate REGISTER HERE |
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| 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 Contact Elected Officials page to customize an email to U.S. senators and representatives. They can help resolve the stalemate! |
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Making NC Schools the Best in the Nation |
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| Pillar 6 of 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 NCDPI website (scroll down the page to Regional Tour). On Thursday, October 16, Superintendent Green will be in the Piedmont-Triad region. |
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In the Wake of Violence, Threats to Teachers Are Also Threats to NC Public Schools |
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| 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. READ MORE |
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| 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 keeping students SAFE from firearms! |
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| 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. 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
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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) |
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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. |
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