NC Education and Budget Legislation Details | Hour 1

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 dpeakclendershow 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. All right, let's take a look at some of the headlines going into today. In this afternoon, turns out former FBI Director James Comy is expanding his legal fight against criminal charges filed against him in North Carolina. At Comy's attorneys have asked a federal judge asks us on Monday for permission to file a more detailed legal brief challenging the case against him. So the request comes as both sides continue to battle over whether Comy can be prosecuted can prosecute the former FBI director for a social media post prosecutors say amount to a threat against then president candidate Donald Trump. So the controversies all started when Comy posted a photograph on Instagram showing seashells on a North Carolina beach arranged to display the numbers eighty six forty seven. So prosecutors say that eighty six forty seven could reasonably be interpreted as a call to eliminate the forty seventh President Donald Trump. Comy has maintained that the post was innocuous and that he removed it after learning that some people interpreted it that way. So federal prosecutors say, though the Instagram post constitutes a criminal threat. So, according to Monday's court filings, Comy's attorneys want to submit additional legal arguments addressing constitutional issues and contend that the post is protected political speech under the First Amendment. So that case, you know, has attracted some big national attention because it raises questions about that line between political expression and criminal threats, particularly in this age of social media. So no hearing date has been announced on the latest filing. We will certainly keep you up to date on it. The judge will first decide whether to allow the expanded brief before considering that broader constitutional question raised by Comy's lawyers. And federal regulators have accused a Durham based energy company of operating what they describe as one of the largest and quote brazen fraud schemes in the agency's history. The case is drawing some renewed attention to a North Carolina lawmaker's pass ties to the company. So according to reports out today by The News and Observer, State Senator Sophia Chilick, a Democrat from Durham County, joined her husband, lobbyist Ben Abram, in twenty twenty four to meet with Congressional offices on behalf of the company American Efficient. Chilick says the couple was legally separated at the time and she complied with all applicable ethics requirements. The Abrams family is large donors to the North Carolina Democratic Party and former Governor Roy Cooper, now running for US Senate. In an enforcement order issued in April, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission alleges that American Efficient fraudulently claimed hundreds of millions of dollars in payments by taking credit for energy efficient savings that it didn't create. The FIRG FEERC ordered the company pay more than one point one billion in civil penalties, calling the operation quote one of the largest and most brazen fraud schemes in history. American Efficient is denying the allegation, saying it followed market rules, and it is challenging the action in federal court. Meantime, North Carolina Republicans are appointing to former Governor Cooper's connections to the company, while the federal enforcement case against American Efficient continues. No criminal charges have been filed, and details of the state budget continue to make headlines today, including one that caused two Republicans to vote against the budget. The controversy is over North Carolina's state ferries system. The budget will require tolls on all seven state ferry routes, beginning no later than January first of next year. Today, only three ferry routes currently charge tolls. Under the new budget, the remaining four free routes, including the heavily trafficked Hatteras, Okracoke and Notts Island ferries, will begin collecting fares. Lawmakers also created one hundred and fifty dollars annual commuter paths for those residents who rely on the ferries for regular travel now. Supporters say the change is necessary to help stabilize funding for North Carolina's ferry system, which faces rising operating costs and growing a growing backlog of these maintenance and vessel replacement needs. Ferriyes serve as part of the state's highway system, transporting millions of passengers and nearly a million vehicles each year. But the proposal sparks some bipartisan oppositions from lawmakers and the coastal communities, so both Republicans Senators Bobby Hannig and Norm Sanderson they broke with members of their own party and voted against the state budget, arguing that the toll amounted to a new tax on those residents who depend on the ferries to get to work, school, medical appointments, basic necessities. Sanderson has argued that lawmakers should first wait for the results of a state audit of the ferry division before expanding tolls. The budget does not establish the exact toll amount if you're headed down down East and leaving that decision to the DOT Department of Transportation, but the new tolling system is scheduled to be in place by January of twenty twenty seven, setting up what's likely to remain a contentious issue in eastern North Carolina over the coming months, and one of the state's most political Most prominent political figures returns home today. US Secretary of US Education Secretary Linda McMahon will headline the America First Speaker series in Newbern Today, McMahon, and Newburn native and graduate of East Carolina University, is expected to outline the Trump administration's education priorities, including expanding parental involvement in schools, strengthening workforce development, and reducing federal involvement in education. Administration officials say McMahon will discuss the efforts to return to more decision making authority to states and local communities, while promoting career and technical education that better prepare students for the workforce. So that newborn event is expected to draw elected officials, education leaders, community members from across eastern North Carolina. McMahon has been one of the administration's leading voices on school choice, parental rights, and education reforms since taking office earlier this year, and today's visit to eastern North Carolina makes kind of a homecoming for the Cabinet secretary. She's frequently credited North Carolina with shaping her views on education and economic opportunity. So those are some of the headlines that we have coming today. We're going to talk more about education in North Carolina with Bob Lupke from the Center for Effective Education, and what does that mean. What kind of things are in the state budget that just passed this past week that could really get your child ready to get into the classroom, get teachers ready to get into the classroom. And why are more kids deciding not to homeschool? So the numbers are out and it looks like the number of kids homeschooling has been declining lately. Bob's going to give us the details on that, plus later in the hour Free our Spirits. Do we still need the ABC system? We're going to be talking more about that. Certainly, if you're headed to the beach, headed to those fairies, you might also be swinging by an ABC store. So we're going to talk more about that. What does the ABC system mean for North Carolina? And is it outdated? That's the big question that we're going to be asking later in the hour. So a lot going on today, certainly on the Pete Calendar show. I'm Donna King and I'm sitting in for Pete Calendar, and we will be talking about all of that. All right. 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We're watching all of these little details in the six hundred page plus state budget lots to do with education K twelve education. One of the things that has really jumped out to me is, you know, of course, an increase in teacher pay and raises for teacher What else are you seeing in the state budget for North Carolina's education system that's catching your attention? Maybe we aren't aware of. Yeah, Besides a teacher pay, there were a number of small but significant changes that were made and helpful to everyone who sports educational freedom. Let me highlight a couple of them. Two of them are for studies. Now, I know that might not excite a lot of people, but it's an important point and usually what studies kind of presage are further legislation. The two areas that the legislation is going to look at are they're going to do a study on weighted student funding. What that means is basically creating a model school finance system that is tied to characteristics of students, you know, rather than our current allotment model, which we have about fifty to sixty different allotments, but they're really not tied the students, but rather it's a hodgepodge of a lot of things that basically we can't get control over. So it's funding the kids, not that school necessarily correct. Correct, Okay, so this would take again a much more desirable direction. I would tie simply say, it ties funding to students, and it's a much better system for transparency and accountability. So that's encouraging that. The overall of the school finance system is something we've been talking about at the Lock Foundation for a number of years. We did a report on it in twenty twenty four, and we're hopeful that movement's now going to be made in that direction, this is. A nonpartisan Oh sorry, go ahead, go ahead. I was going to say this is a non partisan issue. Democrats seem to talk about this too, that our education funding model is antegrated. Correct, And I think that's what makes a lot of people optimistic now in that this is a big issue. It's probably the biggest political lift simply because the K twelve education budget is the largest single budget item in the state budget, and so it affects a lot. And oftentimes when you address something like this you need to bipartisan support. That hasn't always been the case. This issue has been around, but for various reasons, was never really tackled. We did that. There was a commission about ten about actually about fifteen years ago that you know, said something should be done. It pointed out a lot of the shortcomings of the current system. But you know, as often happens, a report was produced, but it's sat on the shelf because there wasn't the political will and not the urgency that exists today. So I think what's different today is people on both sides of the aisle see that something needs to be done. Also, there's the dynamic of declining enrollments in a lot of schools. That also changes the issue, and so we're hopeful that movement in that direction will happen. Now that is exciting, And you know, one of the other things that I've been looking at, it looks like a new study shows that the numbers of homeschool enrollment is actually declining. You know, I've always thought that more and more kids were homeschooling because of technology. But are you seeing a drop in the number of students homeschooling? Yeah? Yeah, in North Carolina, the actual numbers came out last week and in North Carolina there was a drop of about twelve thousand students. It's about seven and a half percent in one year, which is significant. But they're they're about four or five reasons I looked at, or I kind of put forward as to why this is going on now. It's very The enrollments the last couple of years have been the last couple of years have been pretty valid. As we all know, the homeschooling enrollment jumped significantly during the pandemic. Okay, it went up you know in many places over ten percent, et cetera. So that number has been high. I think it reached about one sixty nine in North Carolina. But those numbers have come down a little bit for a variety of reasons. One of them is cut kind of an administrative detail. To be a homeschooler in North Carolina, you're required to file when you begin a school and when the school technically is closed. Oftentimes what happens is obviously when instruction begins, parents file all the paperwork, but oftentimes when the school was closed or when a student was no longer homeschooled, that paperwork was not followed up on. So for a while the numbers were a little inflated. The Department of Non Public Education in North Carolina was kind of purging some of those records. So you saw somewhat of a decline the last couple of years because some of the schools that were technically open but hadn't filed the closure statement of those who are being corrected in and the changes in numbers, some of them are resulted from that, some of the some of the disparities, I mean, there is there is a solid number about one hundred and fifty What do we have with one hundred and fifty three thousand now? But a lot of homeschoolers dispute those numbers. One of the the state every year does an estimate on the number of homeschoolers, and imputed within that estimate is an assumption that there's about one point six students per homeschooling household. Most homeschooling associations think that numbers should be about two point zero. So that would increase the numbers a little bit. Uh, And you know there's I mean, it would it would put it up more, the enrollment more, but that's been disputed for a number of years. And then another thing that doesn't get talked about much, but it's beginning to impact things everywhere. It's just the birth rates. Birth rates are in decline all over North Carolina. That's already showing up in K twelve enrollment. And you know, obviously it's going to impact homeschooling families too. So the numbers of kids that are educated either in public schools, private schools, or homeschools, I mean, those aren't decline as well. So those all those factors kind of influence the final numbers and have contributed to the volatility, but not. The other thing we shouldn't lose track of is that despite all these trends, North Carolina still has one of the large homeschooling populations in the country. It's third currently behind California and Texas. Very interesting those changes. There's still a significant amount of home schoolers that are educated at North Carolina. Absolutely. Bob Lukey Center for Effective Education at the John Locke Foundation, Thanks so much. It's so interesting talking to you. I appreciate your time. All right, thank you, Jonah. We've got a lot going on. A lot of it is about North Carolina's education system. So right now, North Carolina's education officials and the State Board of Education are raising some questions about how two major education policy changes approved by the General Assembly will be carried out. So the State Board of Education recently reviewed provisions in the newly enacted state budget involving opportunity scholarship savings and a new law restricting diversity, Equity and Inclusion DEI programs in public schools. So the state Board is questioning how lawmakers are directing savings generated through the school voucher program back in education. So under the budget, lawmakers said identified about thirty five point seven million dollars in savings from opportunity scholarships over the past two years, and that money is being directed towards several education initiatives, including bonuses for school nutrition, custodians, literacy training, funding for curriculum development, but some board members say they're questioning whether those dollars represent new funding for public schools or whether the money is simply being redirected from one education purpose to another. So Board Vice Chairman Alan Duncan questioned whether the more than thirty million dollars of funding amounted to replacing money lawmakers what otherwise have provided. So the issue stems from a twenty twenty three law that expands eligibility for opportunity scholarships and states that savings generated from students leave public schools for private schools would be reinvested into public edu cation. So DPI Department of Public Instruction report found that the savings totaled about thirty five point seven million, but that the money had not been deposited or reinvested in a reinvestment fund envisioned in that law. The board also discussed Senate built two two seven, So that's the new law that restricts certain diversity, equity and inclusion activities DEI in RK twelve Public Schools. Superintendent of public instruction. Green, a Democrat, told board members that that DPI is working on guidance for school districts on how to comply with the law, including questions about what can and cannot be taught in classrooms. Now, you may remember that this bill, this was vetoed by Governor Stein and then was recently the veto was overridden into law by the state legislature. So the law prohibits public schools from promoting certain defined divisive concepts while preserving instruction on topics like historical oppression and difficult periods in American history. Schools must certify compliance with the law by September one. In a new state audit is raising concerns about how North Carolina is tracking inactive landfills. The audit found that nearly eight out of every ten inactive landfills in the state are not being monitored as required. The review examined the Development of Environmental Qualities Oversight closed of closed and found that seventy eight percent of inactive landfill sites reviewed were not being raising concerns about whether the state is adequately tracking potential environmental risks. The findings raise questions about whether those potential environmental risks are identified early enough, particularly at older land site fills where contamination could threaten ground water or surrounding communities. The audit also found these issues involving the state's processes for ensuring landfill owners maintain required monitoring programs and comply with environmental regulations, so the state auditor recommends improvements to the state's oversight process, including better tracking and monitoring inactive landfills. The issue comes as communities across North Carolina continue to deal with questions about environmental protection, industrial development, and long term costs of managing waste sites after they close. Governor Josh Stein is asking the North Carolina Supreme Court to uphold the state's ban on firearm possession by convicted felons. The case involves a legal challenge arguing that the law violates constitutional protections for gun ownership. Stein's administration is urging the court to maintain the prohibition, arguing that the state has a strong interest in preventing convicted felons from possessing firearms. The laws face several challenges in recent years following changes in how courts evaluate Second Amendment cases. The North Carolina Court of Appeals previously upheld the law, ruling that prohibitions on firearm possession by felons remains consistent with constitutional protections because the right to bear arms applies to law abiding citizens. The case involves Eric James Drucker, who was convicted of possession of a firearm by a felon in Bunkhom County. Jury found him found him guilty in twenty twenty three. Ducker argues that the recent US Supreme Court decision changed the legal standard for gun restriction. So this case and lots of others coming up, we're going to be talking more about this throughout the day. Today. We also have interesting information from Free our spirits. What do you think about about the state's ABC system? Do we need it? Is it antiquated? What should we expect going into the summer, and what do you think of the ABC system? There are groups that are saying that it's outdated, that it relies on cronyus, that there's too much controversy. Is a free market approach better. I'm Donna King from Carolina Journal filling in for Pete Calendar today on the Pete Calendar Show. We were just talking about the ABC system. Store. If you've got big summer plans, no doubt. You have spent some time in an ABC store in North Carolina. What do you think of it? Do you think that it is serving its purpose, that it's you know, the best system out there. There's a group that says no, Free our Spirits and Joyce Sullivan from Free our Spirits has some new ideas. She said, we need to really look at Although this issue has come up before, doesn't quite get across the finish line in most cases. Joyce, thanks so much for joining me today. Oh Donna, my pleasure. Thanks for having me absolutely tell me about the ABC system and why you think it is outdated. Well, first, we created Free our Spirits this year. It's a grassroots effort to educate and really begin the conversation about why we should modernize North Carolina's ABC system. So, the current system has been in existence since prohibition, so since nineteen thirty seven, to be exact, that's eighty nine years. North Carolina's changed a lot in eighty nine years. It's outdated, it's inefficient. The current system has one hundred and seventy one boards, but North Carolina has one hundred counties. Brunswick County boasts nine overarching ABC boards. Not sure why we need that many boards, inefficient redundancy. North Carolina needs a more modern approach that's focused on the consumer as opposed to a more state controlled environment. Sure, you know we've talked about this before. I feel like over the years, in the decade or so that I've been covering North Carolina politics, this issue gets brought up, but it doesn't quite get across the finish line. Why do you think reform in this area has been such a challenge. Well, so, there are. Two words that come to mind, control and fear. So the ABC control is a monopoly for the state of North Carolina, So they hold control on what we can buy, when we can buy, at what price we can buy, and quite honestly, where we can buy. We can only go to a state sanctioned retail outlets. And then there's fear. There's fear of challenging that control, especially if you're in perhaps the hospitality or restaurant industry, and that there could be some retaliatory effects on you or your business. The ABC Commission has a full time lobbyist whose sole job is to maintain the state's control. And if you even begin to have a conversation with him about what modernization would look like in North Carolina. His stock response is over my dead body. So I think that tells you everything you need to know about why the needle has not moved. Sure, sure, well what are you proposing? What does reform look like to you? So we are you know, again, this is a conversation so that we we'd like a lot of people around the table, But we view perhaps a hybrid model where there are some rural counties that perhaps need a little bit more control, harder to get to like that model serves them well. And then a full privatization and perhaps some of the more urban markets so that the consumer who seems to be the last person that's being served here has greater choice, better pricing, and convenience. We all want one stop shopping, so we'd like to go to one retail outlet, do all of our shopping, pick up our spirits, and not have to make another stop to continue to fuel the state's ABC monopoly. Sure, what is this? How does North Carolina system compare to other states? It feels like when I just crossed the border, I can get you know, we can get liquor and grocery stores. How is North Carolina is a different than most of our neighboring states. And how is it different. Yeah, we are still a state controlled state. So you're when you're going into some of our border states, and you know, you can often make the argument there's an awful lot of money, an awful lot of North Carolina money being spent in the border states for spirits because they can get what they want at a greater convenience. So for some it could be a thirty or forty five minute drive, but they can get what they want at at a lower price, better selection, more convenience. So we are one of the last sort of outstanding state controlled states, and we'd like to see us move to a more privatized model. How would that work? You mentioned a hybrid. What does regulation look like under a hybrid? Well, this still would be regulation. You know, the ABC has a function of permitting and you know, regulating the permitting process and of course you know, overseeing any sort of underage service or purchase powers. So the. ABC board and the al E, especially the al E become what we view as very strategic partners and making this success. Well, so there obviously will still be rules and regulations, but you'll be able to buy it at a more convenient location at perhaps a lower price. 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 the Pete Calendar show. Again, thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone. M