House lawmakers tuck big school changes into state budget proposal

State House lawmakers are proposing a long list of big policy changes for education in their budget proposal, including a new graduation requirement and a break for students whose grades have excluded them from getting behind the wheel.

Posted 8:44 p.m. Aug 5, 2021 — Updated 9:45 p.m. Aug 5, 2021

Laura Leslie

, WRAL Capitol Bureau chief

RALEIGH, N.C. — State House lawmakers are proposing a raft of major policy changes for education in their budget proposal, including a new graduation requirement and a break for students whose grades have excluded them from getting behind the wheel.

Partially unveiled Thursday, the bill includes 226 pages of “special provisions” affecting K-12 schools, universities and community colleges in North Carolina.

It's not unusual for lawmakers to insert policy provisions into the budget, especially when they might be controversial or when they might not advance as standalone bills. Those that House leaders have added to Senate Bill 105 include the following:

Beginning with the upcoming school year, rising high school seniors who don’t meet the readiness requirements of the state’s Career and College Ready program would be required to take remediation courses in math, reading and English. The courses would be developed by the community college system. The goal is to reduce the need for remedial courses in community colleges. Students in the Occupational Course of Study would be exempted from the requirement.
Until June 2022, students would be able to get a eligibility certificate for a driving permit regardless of their grades. Lawmakers have said too many students would be ineligible this year due to struggles with virtual schooling during the last school year. Similarly, students whose permits or licenses were revoked due to school performance would have them restored, and the revocation would be removed from their driving records.
New standards for social studies courses would be suspended for at least two years, and a politically appointed commission under Superintendent of Public Instruction Catherine Truitt, not the State Board of Education, would be created to oversee the updating of curriculum standards. Truitt has complained that the state’s standards are too vague to be useful and ought to be rewritten.
Another politically appointed Boards of Trustees would oversee the state’s two schools for deaf students.
Truitt also would be given the authority to undertake a major restructuring of her department, but lawmakers have set out a list of programs she would not be able to cut.
Schools and school districts would have to make all instructional materials and lesson plans available online for public review. Each school board would have to set up a “local community media advisory committee” to consider challenges to the appropriateness of instructional materials. House leadership had backed a standalone bill to make those changes, but it has not advanced In the Senate.
School districts that aren't teaching cursive handwriting and multiplication tables as required by state lawmakers would face financial penalties. It's unclear how many districts or units this would affect. The state would withhold funds for the district's superintendent's salary, but the local board would be required to make up the difference.
The state’s two virtual charter school programs, which have long struggled with low student achievement during a lengthy pilot phase, would be approved for operations for at least four more school years and would be allowed to admit up to 20 percent more students.
Every school district would be required to set up at least one threat assessment team under the guidance of the state’s Center for Safer Schools. The team would weigh questions of threatening behavior by students.
Teachers would no longer be required to pay $50 to help pay for a substitute teacher if they want to schedule a personal day.
Competitive robotics programs would become a recognized interscholastic athletic activity regulated by the State Board of Education. The state Department of Public Instruction would be required to set up a grant program to help schools get afterschool robotics programs off the ground.

House legislators are expected to debate the budget in committee next Tuesday and hold House floor votes next Wednesday and Thursday, so these proposals could change before the bill is finalized.

After that, House and Senate leaders will have to negotiate a final proposal with Gov. Roy Cooper, who holds veto power. It's unclear how many of these proposals would be included in any compromise budget.

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