McCrory-appointee to State Board of Education announces resignation

Amy White will resign from the North Carolina State Board of Education next month — shrinking the number of Republicans on the 13-voting member board from four to three.

White announced her resignation during the board’s meeting Thursday. She said she wants to “refocus my passion, my energy, my time” on Community of Hope Ministries, where she is the executive director. The organization serves children and families in southern Wake County through various programs in and out of schools.

“Ms. White, let me just say that’s a stunner,” Board Chairman Eric Davis said after White made her announcement. “We were not expecting that, and yet many of us can share many of the feelings you’ve just expressed of the rewards and challenges of serving on this board.”

Davis said White’s work on the state board as during her tenure as a Wake County Board of Education member has been “marvelous.”

“You are singularly focused on students, and I personally learned a lot from you,” Davis said.

White’s term expired March 31, but she stayed on while no appointment had been approved to replace her.

Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper must appoint a replacement for her, and the State House of Representatives and the State Senate must confirm the replacement. One of the board’s current seats has been empty for years, without a confirmation, leaving it with only 12 voting members. White’s resignation will leave the board with 11 voting members, until appointments can be confirmed.

White, of Garner, represents the North Central region, which includes Wake County and stretches north from Harnett County to the Virginia boarder and east from Chatham County to Edgecombe County.

She was appointed to the board in June 2016 by then-Gov. Pat McCrory, a Republican, to serve a seven-year term.

“It has been one of the highlights of my 30-year career of advocacy for students and families across the state of North Carolina,” White said Thursday. “What an honor it was to receive that phone call.”

White is chairwoman of the Education Innovation and Charter Schools committee, which leads the board’s reviews of charter school applications or closures, as recommended by both the Charter Schools Advisory Board and the state Department of Public Instruction’s Office of Charter Schools.

The State Board of Education sets policies for education in the state, often aligned with or spurred by new state or federal laws. The board also reviews annual reports and surveys and approves some programmatic changes, like periodic changes to content standards across core and other subject areas.

Republican state lawmakers are floating bills this legislative session that would weaken the board’s oversight of charter schools and course standard-setting. Those bills follow just a few charter school applications being rejected or put on hold in the past year and controversy over new social studies standards approved in 2021.

Governors can appoint replacements for board members whose terms have expired or who have resigned, but their confirmation processes differ. When a board member’s term expires, the governor must appoint a replacement that then must be confirmed by the State House of Representatives and the State Senate. When a board member resigns, the governor can appoint a replacement without them needing to be confirmed by lawmakers. Because White is resigning after her term has expired, her appointment is subject to confirmation.

Board Member Olivia Oxendine, another McCrory appointee, is still serving on an expired term. Cooper nominated a replacement for her in 2021, but the General Assembly has never taken a vote on confirming the replacement.

Republican state lawmakers are weighing a change to how board members are selected, however. House Bill 17 would put a constitutional amendment before voters on whether board members should be elected, rather than appointed. It would also expand the members to 17, have them serve-four-year terms and make the state superintendent the chair.

Bill supporters cast an elected board as more democratic than the current system, while those opposing it questioned whether it would expose the state’s education system to even greater political influence.

The bill has remained in the House rules committee since February.

The 11 appointed members come from the state’s eight education regions and three are at-large picks. State Board of Education appointees can serve up to eight-year terms. The elected state superintendent, state lieutenant governor and state treasurer also serve, though only the lieutenant governor and treasurer are voting members.