Education Priorities in the New NC Budget| Hour 3

What's going on. Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to three on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all of the links, become a patron, go to thepeakclendarshow dot com make sure you hit the subscribe button. Get every episode for free right to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support. I'm Donna King from Carolina Journal filling in for Pete Calendar today on the Peak Calendar Show. Thanks for joining us, looking forward to spending the hour with you. We're going to be talking a lot about all of the education pieces that are inside the state budget that North Carolina is now operating under. We have a new thirty four point three billion dollars state budget. It's been eighteen months in the making, lots of negotiations back and forth, lots of teacher raises, a lot of policy and it. So we're going to be talking more about that and what you can expect as you get ready to send the kids back to school or maybe even go back to school yourself. If you're a teacher, you're getting a pay raise, as it turns out, in this new state budget. So we're me talking all about that in the last hour Governor Stein. In the next hour, Governor Stein signed the bill. North Carolina is now starting to see the effects those teacher raises in effect, law enforcement pay raises, continued income tax reductions, new funding for Hurricane Helen recovery, something we've been talking about, we'll be talking about for quite some time. But also information about how data centers are taxed. So you know, starting years ago, data centers didn't have to pay income tech or didn't have to pay sales tax on the energy they used. Well, who could have predicted what data centers are doing now with AI and everything that we are expecting them to be churning out for us across North Carolina. So within the state budget, now data centers will be paying sales tax on the electricity that they use. There's certainly other incentives that they have for coming here, but now sales tax is now one that they will be paying for energy. It should bring about twenty one million dollars into our state cofers this year alone, up to thirty million a year coming starting maybe around twenty twenty eight each year, so that will be something that we will be having into our state budget. From that. Governor Stein signed the measure, but he also criticized some provisions in it, including state government and executive authority. One of the things that it did is it shifted some of the appointment power of boards and commissions. Some boards and commissions used to be entirely appointed by the Governor's office, and the state budget shifts some of those to other offices within the executive branch, other members of Council of State, or shift some of them to the General Assembly. Overall, the executive branch still has more appointments in these boards and commissions than the legislature, but this does shift some of them, drawing heat from Governor Stein's office. Ultimately, though Governor sign looks like he concluded that the benefits of the state budget outweigh the objections, and he signed the legislation rather than vetoing it or allowing it to become law without his without his signature. Because that he had ten days to just let it ride and it would become law without his signature, he decided to go ahead and sign it put his name on it. I think that's important piece of this story that Governor Stein did sign this first budget that he was sent by the state legislature, and if you remember governor former Governor Cooper, I think he signed one in two terms, vetoed all of them, and that meant teacher raises and all of the spending that was in the state budget was just being vetoed a lot and overridden. Those vetos overridden. So I think we're. Seeing a new time perhaps between the relationship between the governor's office and the state legislator, the Republican led legislature. Not without criticism, certainly, he's vetoed a bill bertiularly, he vetoed one last week that would allow municipalities to set up designated camping but for homeless and camping in public right of ways. But it also would require a certification process for them to you know, making sure that it's a drug free zone, that it's safe, so that they could draw down some federal money to help with homeless problems across North Carolina. He vetoed that bill. I think we're going to see a veto override when they come back later in July, but you know, we'll see. I'm not sure. We had five Democrats vote for the bill, and so that is enough if they stick with it to override the veto. So we'll be certainly following that. You know, they're in that bill though in the state budget, it also eliminates things like the Office of under Utilized Businesses, which was set up to help minority own businesses get an advantage in state contracting. That offen so is closed. I guess lawmakers didn't feel like it was generating enough benefit for taxpayers as they go forward into this. So we're going to be following all of these stories we as we continue covering the state budget. This is a six hundred page budget, I mean a six hundred page budget and a six hundred page financial report to go with it, so more than a thousand pages, and it passed quickly. There were changes going into this budget right up until the day before, so it is one of those things that we're going to see a lot of technical corrections and we're going to be exploring more and more about it as the week goes on. So there's also a new study out about elections so that we're seeing a growing number of unaffiliated voters. We've talked a lot about this recently, but there's a new data out where you can find it on Carolina Journal dot com and WBT dot com. Nearly seven out of every ten new voter registration in North Carolina is unaffiliated. Seven out of ten. That is huge. It really changes how the two major parties are going to start trying to draw in support. And you know, maybe it means that we have a real marketplace of ideas when we talk about campaigning. So today about unaffiliated voters make up nearly forty percent of North Carolina is electorate. That's a lot. It's slightly surpassing both Republicans and Democrats. More North Carolina voters are unaffiliated than a Republican or a Democrat. Political analysts are saying a couple of factors are contributing to that trend, primarily North Carolina semi open primary system, So you know, if you're unaffiliated, you can walk into the voting booth and choose either party's primary, So you could vote pull the Democrat ballot or you could pull the Republican ballot. And that semi open system allows unaffiliated voters to vote in either primary, and it kind of reduces the practical incentive to register with a political party. That's really contributing to this that the shift has been building for years towards unaffiliated voters. Unaffiliated voters past Republicans in total registration back in twenty seventeen, and they passed Democrats in twenty twenty two. So since twenty twenty, approximately twenty thousand more registered Democrats than Republicans have changed their affiliated affiliation to unaffiliated status. So the John Locke Foundation doctor Andy Jackson says that despite the rapid growth and unaffiliated registrations and our expanding populations, certainly the Republicans share registered voters has remained pretty stable over the last thirty years, where Democrats share has steadily declined. So the numbers suggest that future statewide elections may increasingly be decided by voters who did not formally identify with your either major party. So what does this mean for our elections and where do you stand on that? This is interesting. It's a lot of folks who are coming down and either coming to North Carolina or or have been here for years and saying, look, I don't identify with either major party. So we're going to be focusing a lot on that as we move towards November, because it definitely changes the game on how people to generate votes. As they go into the legislature, they're going to have to make their case. 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We're talking a lot about the state budget. If you're getting your kids ready to go back to school, grandkids ready to go back to school, listen up, because there is a lot of information in the new state budget that has been passed by the North Carolina General Assembly and signed by Governor Stein. Teacher raises, you know all kinds of different things. One of the things that we are seeing is one is twelve point five billion dollars to the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction and five hundred and ninety eight million dollars for increased teacher compensation. My guest now, Bryce Fidler, from the Carolina Academic Leadership Network, is joining us now for kind of a breakdown on what we're seeing in this state budget. Bryce, thanks for joining us. Hey, good afternoon, Donna. Thank you for having me. Absolutely what are you watching in the state budget? I know our heads were all spending last week when we saw six hundred pages come out and a quick vote and lots of new information, but it really impacts North Carolina's public school system. What are you looking for? It absolutely does well. Of course, there's the top line numbers that you mentioned at the top here, but there's also some interesting policy changes that have been added to the budget, some of which have also been absorbed from other bills, and perhaps we can talk through what some of those include on the teacher front, as well as new standards for artificial intelligence literacy and so at the top here there are changes to teacher licensure in North Carolina. So this actually originally had come from Separate Education. It's been absorbed into the budget and for incoming teachers, it actually removes admissions tests for entry into an education training program. As I understand that this is something that the State Board of Education has argued there isn't really a clear correlation between these tests and being effective in the classroom, and so that was a positive change to see. And it's also eliminated some of the exams that new and entry level teachers have to take when they're new to the profession to ease some of the burden and the pressure that they face, while still ensuring that teachers are actually being effective and then recruiting and retaining them as they progress in their careers. Sure, sure, So what does this mean though for folks? Because I'm hearing that this is the largest raise for incoming new teachers in fifty years. I mean that's got to be make it a lot easier to recruit and retain good teachers. Yes, absolutely, I mean salary is always going to be a major part of it, you know, as I understand that the teachers are seeing an average raise of about eight percent. I also think there's a one time bonus to make up for the fact that North Carolina went basically a full year without a state budget. So that's going to be a big incentive and means to keep high quality teachers in the classroom. And then, of course, beyond the salary and benefits, we have to talk about sort of those conditions and the licensing that teachers often point to. And so I think that was the thinking behind let's address some of that in the budget as well. Yeah, tell me about AI safety and social media. Those are things that I know parents and grandparents are thinking about all the time when it comes to kids. They have the whole world in their pocket through their phone, and what are our responsibilities. What's a school going to do to try and help keep them safe? Yeah, this is one that we actually hear about a lot. So the State Board of Education was actually instructed to adopt new education standards on Artificial Intelligence literacy and so basically what these will do is set boundaries for what students are expected to know when it comes for artificial intelligence, and this will include things like responsible and ethical use of AI, the limits of AI tools. You know, chat GBT isn't supposed to write your paper for you. Maybe it can help you write that paper or an outline, but it's not supposed to do the work for you, and also things like data and privacy concerns. You know, you don't necessarily want to be putting personal or identifiable information into these AI tools. And so these standards are meant to educate students about the safety requirements, about the ethical use of AI, and that instruction will be taking place in our public schools sometimes in the near future because of these new standards. Sure, sure, and you know it's not in the budget, but it's something else that we've been talking a lot about is the d ban in K twelve schools. So this was a veto that was overridden, not part of the budget. But what are you watching in this ban and how schools are going to be implementing it? Yeah, so I think this is a big deal. And as you mentioned, last month, the House over Roade Governor signed zdo of a bill aimed at prohibiting DEI practices in public schools. And this does a few things, Okay, So one is it prohibits instruction on divisive concepts and it sort of lays out what some of those might be. You know, for example, that an individual is inherently a racist or sexist, or that meritocracy is considered inherently racist or sexist, or even you know, other poisonous ideas that we've seen do a lot of harm in public education. And so this bill, which is now a law, aims to specifically prohibit the teaching of these concepts, and then it also prohibits sort of DEI centered professional development, which is often where a lot of these toxic ideas can actually stem from and seep into our schools. And so going forward, now every school district has to annually certify that the and compliance with this new law by September first, so that'll be an annual requirement going forward. You know, what kind of oversight is there going to be for this, because you know, we hear all the time that those who might have in nefarious intents or some sort of indoctrination agenda in a classroom find their way around it. When it comes to even with this d I. We were seeing hidden cameras and parents complaining, you know, what kind of guardrails do you think that we need? Is it training? Do we need to do it with the school boards? You know, I know you work closely with school boards. Tell me what you think. Yeah, So I think awareness is the first step so as soon as this bill was overridden, we actually sent a memo to school board numbers, whom we work with through Carolina Journal, sort of alerting them with the fact that this legislative change has occurred. So I think school boards are going to play an important role. Of course, they are the governing bodies over our school districts, and they sort of adopt the policies and hold the superintendent intendant accountable to making sure that the policies are executed, So they have a very big role in that. Also, the Department of Public Instruction, which is the state education entity over education in North Carolina, is going to be receiving those statements of compliance and probably betting and checking to make sure that school districts are actually doing what they're supposed to do. And of course we've seen when school districts do not necessarily follow the law, you know, they can get pulled in front of a legislative panel in question and made sure that they're actually upholding their legal obligation. So I think there are a number of mechanisms from the local up to the state level to make sure that it's carried out. Sure Sure, we're talking to Bryce Feldler who is head of the Carolina's Academic Leadership Network. He's going to stick around actually past the break, because I want to talk more about our education funding. You know, this is an issue that seems like it crops up every single legislative session and our funding formulas. How do individual administrator school administrators know where to put money where they're going to get it. There's all these different categories of where money can be spent and how it can be sevent and it's very confusing, and me wonder you know, each child has just a limited amount of time, a little limited amount of engagement with our public school system. How do we make the most of it? We're talking today one about certainly our neighbors to the south and the death of Lindsay Senator Lindsay Graham over the weekend. The latest is Trump and Thoom. President Donald Trump is supporting the idea that Lindsay Graham's sister be appointed to his Senate seat, and then of course in November there would be an election to replace him. You know, Bryce Fedler is joining me now from Carolina's Academic Leadership Network. I know you work a lot with folks in South Carolina and in North Carolina with school boards. Bryce, thanks for joining us. Tell me a little bit about what's happening there in South Carolina and what you're hearing and really the legacy that Senator Graham leaves. Well, thanks Donna. You know South Carolina is mourning his loss today, and you know, Lindsay Graham is someone who has served in Congress for over three decades. He hated much of his life to public service, and you know, I'm from South Carolina. I'm seeing friends and college share stories of a meeting with him and working with him, and everyone points out how warm and charismatic he was. And so this is a major loss for the state and really the country as a whole, and there are big shoes to fill in the Senate going forward. And as you mentioned earlier, I'm seeing some earlier reports that Governor Henry M. McMaster may appoint his sister. I think there's an announcement perhaps even expected later today, and then there will be a special primary election, as I understand it, in August to determine who's the Republican nominee for the election in November. Great, Okay, well, thank you, I appreciate that update. We've been talking today on the Pete Calendar show about everything in the budget. Among the things that we're seeing is study committees to talk about how we figure out, you know, how we figure out how our funding formulas work for education. There's there's so many different paths for money going into school, how to administrators work it out? And then even increased support for something like open enrollment. So it means that let's say you move into a certain neighborhood and you're the school that you're intered, that you're zoned to, that you are assigned to, isn't going to work for your family? Open enrollment would mean I believe, Bryce, please correct me if not, open enrollment would mean you could go wherever space available, wherever you would want within your school district. So they're going to study open enrollment. Bryce, tell me what this kind of thing means and how it would what it would look like on the ground for parents who have kids in public schools. Well, that's exactly right. So open enrollment is the idea that families get to choose among public schools within their school districts along as space is available. And that's referring to intraude district open enrollment, which is the type of open enrollment that North Carolina has been taking an interest in as of late. And as you mentioned, the budget directs a study committee to study basically the viability of open enrollment, so which districts are currently practicing it. A handful of North Carolina districts already have this policy, most do not, but they can actually adopt one on their own if this they would like to before perhaps state legislation in the future mandates it. And we at Carolina's academic leadership member have been traveling the state this year talking with school boards that have open enrollment, sort of learning how they've made it viable and how we can encourage other school districts to adopt the same. And so that study committee's report would be due by, as I understand, April fifteenth of next year, and it would include any potential recommended legislation that the General Assembly might want to. Consider on that sure and this is popular, I mean, Carolina Journal's pull on Education found that of likely general election voters that seventy nine percent felt like open enrollment would be good. And we're talking about of course intrud district, meaning you couldn't take your kid out of your school district for your zone, for Mecklenburg County, then you couldn't you go enroll them, you know, somewhere in comparis or something, but open enrollment. Seventy nine percent of those respondents said that they liked this idea. What are you hearing as you travel around the state and talk about things like open enrollment? Do people like it? Are school boards receptive? Yes? I would say it's widely popular. We see that and from the parents in the pulling that you mentioned, school boards generally are in support of it. And some of the conversations I have they're hearing about open enrollment for the first time, and maybe there is some caution or some trepidation, but as they sort of understand what it might mean in the fact that it might actually encourage parents to stay within the district, because at the end of the day, open enrollment is a form of public school choice that provides a benefit that might actually encourage parents to stay within the school district. And so once they understand that side of it, you start to see a little bit more support and a little bit more buy in. And of course there are logistical questions like with any new education program, but I'll just point to South Carolina, which actually just passed legislation to mandate open enrollment, and this is d district, which means transfers between the district, which is a little bit more logistically complex, and that state made it happen, So there's certainly reason to believe that North Carolina can make it successful too. Sure, as you travel around, do you have any idea, any suggestions of what county and our state is doing this? Well, who can we look to for guidance and what this would look like on a state wide level. Sure, so there's a few examples, so Grandville County Schools, Pitt County Schools, Winston Salem, Forsyth County schools, and Union County schools. And we actually had an event recently, of course, we had a gentleman from Union County Schools come and talk about how open enrollment has been a success. We've also recently heard that districts like New Hanover County Schools have open enrollment as well, and so it can vary. Some are done more on a case by case basis that the process is a little bit more open and streamlined, and really the best version of the process is one that is fair which is easily promoted and one that parents can apply to. And there's an option for every student so long a space is available. Fantastic. Thanks so much, Bryce Fielder, director of Carolina Academic Leadership Network. I appreciate all this great information today. Thank you, Donna. I'm Donna King from Carolina Journal, filling in for Pete Calendar today on the Peak Calendar Show. If you are in your car riding around, I've got some interesting news. We've been talking a lot this afternoon about the state budget. Lots of details, kind of policy wonk kind of stuff, but there are a few things about your car that are going to change in public policy in North Carolina, all attached to the state budget. One of them is that North Carolina's drivers are going to soon stop getting license plate. Renewal stickers, paper registration cards. You know, you've been getting that from the DMV for I don't know however long you've been driving. Really you get a paper registration and a little sticker to put on your license plate. That's going to stop. So the change is in the new state budget that Governor Steinsigin tells the DMV North CA on a DMV to move to an all electronic vehicle registration system by October. So the new system means that you'll be able to still be able to get your registration online on your on your phone, print a copies to get in your glove compartment whatever if you need it. But if you want the DMV to mail you one, you to pay a printing and mailing fee. So it really is interesting. It really only affects the physical sticker, the thing you used to get in the mail. That's going to stop. So you still annual registration renewals, fees, your inspection, all that is still going to be required. But all of that was in the state budget and they said that it gives them a chance to reduce some of the administrative costs that the registration process more efficient. Certainly the DMV has struggled with that lately, gotten a lot of criticism for efficiency. So this is one of the things that will stop happening there. If you want your vehicle registration, you're just going to have to go print it yourself. Also, let's talk about vehicle emissions inspections. This is something so the newly signed state budget effective eliminates a vehicle emissions inspection in North Carolina, assuming that the EPA, the Environmental Protection Agency. Goes along with it. So right now, in North Carolina, emissions inspections were required in nineteen counties, including Mecklenburg, and safety inspection also required. But in twenty twenty three, the last state budget, it eliminated that requirement for expection in eighteen of the nineteen counties, so Mecklenburg County was the only remaining county in the state to still require emissions inspections. So now in the state budget that's going to go away too. So these things are interesting, and particularly when we talk about our vehicles, because traffic, infrastructure, all of those things are really a big deal here in North Carolina. We talk about it a lot. We also have new information. If you are a state employee, your health plan may be changing again to assume the State Health Plan Board of Trustees has awarded its third party administrator and pharmacy fits contract to Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina. I don't know if you remember, but sometime ago, a few years ago, they switched under former Treasurer Dale Fallwell, switched to EDNA. Now the new one. The new contracts beginning in twenty twenty eight covering healthcare services for hundreds of thousands of teachers, state employees. You know, I think we're close to something like seven hundred thousand people to retirees their families. This will be a billion dollars. The state Health Pan says that this new agreement, this new contract starting in twenty twenty eight, is going to generate a billion dollars in savings over the life of the contract through provider discounts and if they switched back to Blue Cross Blue Shield. But the total value of the contract is twelve billion dollars over three years. So it does bring Blue Cross Blue Shield back into the role of managing the state health plan after ETNA was replaced in twenty twenty five. So you know, etna's hold on that contract didn't last very long. We were talking about a year here. They had been selected by Dale Fallwell. We and talked about that under State treasure Brad Bryner. The state health plan selected Blue Cross Blue Shield. They said, it's really about affordability, access to care, and the member experience. ETNA says it's reviewing that decision and considering its next step. So this might not quite be over. It really is a major policy change, the state remains one of the nation's strongest economic performers. This is something we've also talked about. CNBC is now saying that North Carolina is number two for business in the country. We were number one last year. Now we're number two. But consistently the last six years, North Carolina has been top for business in the country. New opportunities, manageable under control taxes. But it also means that we've got a lot of growth. You know, we're talking about managing healthcare costs, finding enough teachers, preserving farm land, making sure we have the infrastructure that we need to support all the new neighbors who are coming in here. Sometimes we feel like. We'd like to see I ninety five, I eighty five rolled up, you know, and don't come here. We like North Carolina the way it is, but it looks like it's not going to slow down anytime soon. So this state budget, six hundred pages of it, really has a lot of critical policy for how North Carolina is going to grow and if it's going to be able to adjust to all of these changes in our education system and our infrastructure in our healthcare system. Because a lot of folks are coming here to retire, and how do we keep our competitive edge while providing the resource, resources, the workforce equality of life that we need for the next generation. Housing affordability continues to be a big issue as we move forward in North Carolina history, so certainly, as we've been talking today, we're thinking about our neighbors to the south and South Carolina and the passing of Senator Lindsay Graham. All right, that'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast, so if you'd like, please support them too and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to thepetecleanershow dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.