When Someone Says U.S. Schools Are Failing... |
When someone says U.S. public schools are failing, you know they haven’t seen the international testing data. It’s a testament to the clamor of the anti-public school voices that the myth of U.S. student failure in international comparisons persists. A contributing factor is the current federal administration’s promotion of a national private school voucher program on states as a so-called remedy for the failures of our public schools. In fact, U.S. students don’t score anywhere near the bottom on international assessments. In almost every subject and grade/age they are in the top 25% or top 50% when compared to students across the globe. Two of the most widely reported and respected international assessment programs are The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). Both have been administered to students worldwide for more than two decades and help countries understand how their educational programs and student achievement compare to those of other countries. PISA assesses math, reading, and science every three years. The most recent results show the U.S. ranking 34th of 81 participating countries in math, 9th in reading, and 16th in science. While there is room for improvement, especially in math, the scores certainly do not suggest that U.S. schools are failing. |
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The U.S. rankings on the 2023 TIMSS results in grades 4 and 8 math and science are lower, but still in the top half in every subject and as high as #14 (of 58 countries) in grade 4 science. See our fact sheet for more details. So the next time you hear a lawmaker or pro-privatization advocate say the U.S. public school system is a failing system, call them out for spreading misinformation. Give them the facts. Our public schools are not failing—they’re succeeding (with room for improvement) despite persistent attempts to destroy them. What public schools need is not false reviews but full funding to ensure adequate teacher pay and classroom resources. There is so much to be proud of in our country’s educational system. Instead of starving our public schools through insufficient funding (or no state budget), we should double-down on what’s working and make them even better. Call on Governor Stein to resist the latest effort to defund public schools. Urge him to OPT OUT of the federal tax credit voucher program. It is NOT offering free money to states and it will reduce federal funding available for our neediest schools. If the federal government wants to help states fund education, they should be increasing support for public schools especially in rural communities and they should double the resources for special education programs. Learn more about the federal tax credit vouchers. |
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SBE and NCDPI Share Legislative Priorities |
This week the State Board of Education voted on a set of legislative priorities for 2026-27. The NCGA will take up budget negotiations during the short session this year. It starts on April 21 and typically focuses on making adjustments to the two-year budget passed during odd-numbered years. But because lawmakers have failed to pass a budget for this fiscal year thus far, the coming short session must make up for lost time and funding. Overall priorities align with the state's strategic plan to make North Carolina’s public schools the best in the nation: - Funding for school facility needs in Helene-impacted districts
- Increase teacher and educator pay to highest in the Southeast
- Restore master’s pay
- Reform the principal pay plan
- Address the nearly $13 billion in school construction needs
- Place a moratorium on Opportunity Scholarship program
More detailed legislative requests include specific dollar amounts for requests for 2025-26 funding and 2026-27 funding. The presentation also included non-budget legislative requests (subset below): - School calendar flexibility
- Eliminate Praxis Core requirement for admission to EPP
- Revise portfolio requirement for individuals seeking principal licensure
- Revise the Limited English Proficient (LEP) funding formula
- Increase threshold for procurement from $90,000 to federal threshold of $350,000 to allow child nutrition programs to more easily procure local agricultural products
- Fund statewide virtual charter schools at the statewide average per pupil expenditure and not per pupil expenditure for where the office is located.
See the full presentation. |
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Legislative and SBE Updates |
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Join Us in Raleigh on February 11 to Support Public Schools! |
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| Join us on Wednesday, February 11 for our second installment of wEDnesdays for Public Schools! We are meeting in front of the NCGA (Legislative Building) to speak up for NC’s public schools Bring your signs and your friends and join us! Sign up here (just to let us know your’re coming - it’s not required) 11 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. See you at the State Legislative Building at 140 E Jones Street, Raleigh |
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When States Take Over Education, It Puts Black Children Last in Line, Every Time |
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| By Janice Robinson-Celeste President Donald Trump says he is returning education to the states by closing the U.S. Department of Education. What he really means is that he is returning to a time when education was a privilege for some and an afterthought for others. When he declared in March 2025 that he wanted the Education Department “closed immediately,” it wasn’t just a sound bite. It was a promise. A promise to dismantle the one system meant to protect the children this country has always underserved: Black children. The ink on the Emancipation Proclamation might be old, but the mindset that fought it never really went away. It just put on another suit. After emancipation, freed Black families built schools with their own hands. They hired teachers, scraped together funds and insisted that their children would learn to read even if they had to do so in secret. The backlash was swift and violent. White mobs burned schools, terrorized teachers, and state lawmakers passed inequitable budgets that kept Black students in crumbling classrooms with hand-me-down, tattered books. READ MORE |
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| Wednesday, February 18, 1:00-2:00 p.m. Join PSFNC and CREED to learn more about the NC voucher programs and their impact on public schools and communities. Heather Koons (PSFNC) will share details from our new report, North Carolina School Vouchers: Destroying Public Education and Jerry Wilson (CREED) will discuss survey results showing public opinion about vouchers and more. Time will be reserved for Q and A. REGISTER HERE |
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| When the NC Education Lottery was first established, 35% of the revenue was to go to education. That requirement soon became a guideline, and in 2024-25, only 16.4% of the revenue went to education! Check out our fact sheet to learn more. |
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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. - February 26, 2026
- March 26, 2026
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Words to Remember"When you strip education from federal protection, you don’t get freedom, you get chaos. You get 50 different versions of what a child is worth, determined by 50 governors with 50 different agendas. We’ve seen this movie before." — Janice Robinson-Celeste, author and media executive, 2026 |
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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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