Budget language seems to block future teacher protests, school closings
House proposal would limit times local board of education can close schools.
Posted — UpdatedThe proposal would lock school calendars in place at the beginning of the school year, forbidding local boards of education from changing them except in response to "a severe weather condition, energy shortage, utility failure, public health crisis, school safety crisis, emergency related to a school building or school transportation, or act of God."
The House's education budget also tightens the process for teachers requesting personal days, saying they can't be approved on regular school days "unless the availability of a substitute for that teacher is confirmed for that day."
Rep. Jeffrey Elmore, R-Wilkes, a teacher himself and chairman of the House appropriations committee that works on the state's education budget, said he wouldn't call the new language "a direct response" to the protests. It's about stabilizing school calendars because, once they're set, families plan around them, he said.
"When that decision's made, it needs to be a pretty firm decision," he said.
Republican lawmakers have grumbled about teachers essentially striking for these protest days. Legislators from eastern North Carolina have noted that schools in their districts were already closed for a month or more last fall because of Hurricane Florence.
Mark Jewell, president of the North Carolina Association of Educators, which is organizing the protest, called the new budget language "a direct reaction to the past two years."
"I think that they're trying to silence the voice of public school educators," Jewell said.
State Rep. Rosa Gill, D-Wake, tried to have these changes removed from the budget proposal during an afternoon committee meeting. She was voted down along party lines.
The language takes up just a few paragraphs in the 182 pages of education budget documents released Friday. For it, or anything else in this budget, to take effect the House, the Senate and the governor will need to agree, or the Republican majority will have to pull enough Democrats to their side to override a potential gubernatorial veto.
This budgeting process is just getting underway, with the House rolling out its proposals by subject.
Though much of the House's education proposal came out Friday, information on teacher salaries isn't expected until next week.
Here are a few other highlights from the House's education budget:
- There are several spending increases aimed at school safety, student mental health and crisis response, including an increase in school resource officer funding.
- There's a $1 million pilot program for up to 10 school districts to test out computer-assisted pre-k programs for at-risk kids. This virtual pre-school proposal has been controversial, given concerns about young children and screen time.
- New language would waiving tuition at UNC system schools and state community colleges for the children and spouses of correctional officers killed or permanently disabled in the line of duty. This benefit already exists for law enforcement officers and firefighters.
- An expansion of the state's opportunity scholarship program, which provides taxpayer funding to help people pay private school tuition. The proposal also says the state can spent up to $2.5 million to build and maintain a website to help people select private schools in the program, and another $500,000 to an unnamed non-profit that would market the scholarship program to increase usage.
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