With the start of a new biennium at the North Carolina legislature comes the development of a new state budget. This week, the Joint House and Senate Education Appropriations Committee met three times to begin discussions on education funding. The main focus of Tuesday and Wednesday’s meetings was a series of presentations from the Fiscal Research Division (FRD), providing an overview of the overall education and public school budgets (Part I and II).

Thursday’s meeting opened with Superintendent Mo Green introducing the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) and the State Board of Education's (SBE) joint legislative priorities. Geoff Coltrane, DPI’s Senior Director of Government Affairs and Strategy, provided a more in-depth look at the overall priorities to strengthen North Carolina public schools. These priorities aim to support students in Western districts to recover from Hurricane Helene, raise teacher and educator pay, restore educator master’s pay, reform the principal pay plan, address school construction needs, and place a moratorium on the expansion of the Opportunity Scholarship program and offer no new awards beginning in the 2025-26 fiscal year. Additional legislative priorities outlined – though not discussed in depth – include school calendar flexibility, principal portfolio requirement for licensure, eliminating Praxis Core requirement for admission to education preparation programs, eliminating DPI/SBE school and district accreditation, studying how to eliminate or consolidate required DPI and SBE legislative reports, and sunsetting the Textbook Commission.

The bulk of the presentation focused on DPI’s specific budget requests for student and school support, academic support and coaching, technology, and compensation pathways. The presentation also mentioned specific budget special provisions, which include public school unit (PSU) dollar allotment reversions for purchasing technology, DPI flexibility for placement for early literacy specialists, hold harmless average daily membership for Helene-impacted PSUs, and revising provisions for the Community Eligibility Provision Meal Program Incentive.

In addition to DPI’s budget presentation, lawmakers heard a funding presentation from the North Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities. Next week, legislators will continue budget discussions with presentations from the UNC System, Community College System, and NC State Education Assistance Authority.