RALEIGH (December 28, 2023) – It might seem strange to complain about underfunding of public education in a year when North Carolina had a $4.8 billion budget surplus.1
But it’s true.
In a year when:
- North Carolina ranked 50th of 50 states in the percentage of GDP it devotes to K-12 public education,
- The state ranked an appalling 46th in starting teacher pay and 34th in average teacher pay,2
- Enrollment in the state’s public colleges of education was down 50% since 2010, and
- The state started the school year with 3,500 teacher vacancies and increased reliance on unlicensed teachers,3
The budget legislators adopted three months late simply didn’t do enough to address its shortcomings in public education and take care of the folks who teach our children – North Carolina’s future workforce.
The situation even prompted former UNC men’s basketball coach Roy Williams – who lists teachers among his heroes – to declare: “Come on, man!”
The budget granted teachers raises of 7% over two years – not enough to keep up with the inflation of the past two years, never mind the next two. Teachers with more than 15 years’ experience, in particular, will see paltry raises of 3.6% over two years.
And while legislators boasted about raising starting teacher pay to $39,000 in North Carolina, that’s still $4,000 less than legislators in Alabama approved last year for starting teachers.4 Let that sink in: Alabama.
The General Assembly continued to defy the rule of law – the new budget comes nowhere close to satisfying the plan adopted by both sides in the three-decade Leandro lawsuit over state funds for public schools. And the state Supreme Court has already signaled its plans to reconsider the case in February.5
Instead, legislators adopted an audacious plan to remove any income limits on vouchers for students to attend private schools and expand the plan from $95 million in 2022-23 to $520 million a year by 2032-33.
The voucher expansion will undoubtedly divert funds that could have gone to public schools.
“We could double our teacher raises with the money we are spending on private school vouchers,” declared Rep. Brandon Lofton, D-Mecklenburg.6
At our public universities, the privately drafted budget also contained a provision that puzzled even the UNC Board of Governors: The state will only match endowments for future distinguished professorships if they are in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math.
AFTER A 10-YEAR WAIT, the new budget did finally allow for Medicaid expansion7 – a matter of simple human decency to 600,000 North Carolinians who lack health insurance, even though the vast majority of them work even without insurance. The “action” came only after seven of the state’s rural hospitals closed.
The budget also provided larger raises for nursing instructors in universities and community colleges – recognition that a nurse can make more money being a nurse than teaching how to nurse.
And legislators used billions in one-time federal Covid relief to allocate $925 million to UNC System capital projects, $531 million to UNC System repairs and renovations, a $420 million effort to pair UNC Health and ECU Health to improve rural health care, and $320 million for a new children’s hospital in the Triangle with an emphasis on behavioral health.
Meanwhile, the proposed Education Campus across the street from the Legislative Building in Raleigh – which would house offices of the UNC System, NC Community College System, Department of Public Instruction and Department of Commerce in one building – is now projected to cost nearly $400 million.
THIS WAS ALSO A YEAR when The Chronicle of Higher Education labeled North Carolina “a poster child for troubled governance.”8
That troubled governance led to the departure of a respected chancellor from a flagship university that’s still in politicians’ crosshairs.
In January, trustees at UNC-Chapel brought forward a surprise resolution that was not listed on the meeting agenda urging the university to “accelerate” development of a School of Civic Life and Leadership. In pre-rearranged interviews, they then told The Wall Street Journal and Fox News the goal was to add conservative faculty.
Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz said the school would be developed, as all curriculum is, by university faculty. By October, Arts & Sciences Dean Jim White had hired an initial director and nine distinguished professors as the school’s initial faculty.
In June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against UNC-Chapel Hill and Harvard in a seven-year-old case involving consideration of race in admissions, which previous court rulings had allowed.
A week after the court decision, Guskiewicz announced an effort to expand access and cover tuition and mandatory fees for all UNC students from families that make less than $80,000 a year.
He was scolded by members of the UNC System Board of Governors.
Yet by the end of the year, many institutions – including UNC Asheville9 – had announced similar measures. Too bad Guskiewicz was ahead of the curve.
Duke University said it would cover tuition and fees for students from North and South Carolina from families with up to $150,000 of income.10 The University of Virginia announced it would cover tuition and fees for Virginia students from families that make up to $100,000.11
In early December, Guskiewicz announced he will leave to become President at Michigan State University, which itself is no walk in the park – Guskiewicz will be MSU’s sixth president in six years.
UNC Board of Governors member Lee Roberts will serve as interim chancellor. Roberts deserves a chance – the university and the state need him to succeed. But a flagship national research university also deserves a legitimate national search for Guskiewicz’s successor.
In a last-minute maneuver, legislators also slipped a provision modeled on a Florida law into an unrelated bill that will needlessly require universities to change accreditors with every cycle.
In turn, the micromanagement and heavy-handed politics on UNC’s governing boards have provoked worries about a faculty exodus, and a number of prominent faculty leaders have indeed left.
In June, a bipartisan commission appointed by Gov. Roy Cooper and headed by two former UNC System presidents – one a Republican, one a Democrat – recommended a variety of reforms to make the System’s governing boards less politicized and make them look more like North Carolina.
Nearly 60% of UNC System students are female, for example, yet only 25% of the System’s Board of Governors and one-third of campus Boards of Trustees are female.
To be sure, there were some bright spots in higher education in 2023:
- Jeff Cox was named President of the NC Community College System, with 575,000 students. During his time at Wilkes Community College, Cox oversaw a process that increased student completion rates from 25% to 55% in just five astounding years.
- A Deloitte study found that out of 1,299 programs across the UNC System, 93% had a positive return on investment for graduates.
- After a study found nine UNC colleges of education weren’t doing enough to teach future teachers how to help children read, the UNC Board of Governors emphasized to the colleges that they are to equip future teachers with knowledge of the science of reading. After just two years and an investment of $114 million, officials at the Department of Public Instruction reported this month that more students in kindergarten through third grade started this school year on track in reading.12
- Studies found East Carolina University and ECU Health have a combined economic impact of $6.9 billion and support 57,000 jobs in the state.
- And a study revealed N.C. A&T State University has an annual economic impact of $2.4 billion in North Carolina, supporting 17,337 jobs.
BUT DESPITE a year that began with overflowing state coffers and great budgetary potential, public education in North Carolina somehow remained mired in a toxic political miasma.
Just where is this state headed with public education?
The signs aren’t promising.
1 https://webservices.ncleg.gov/ViewNewsFile/81/CommitteeReport_2023_09_20_Final, p. 7/A1.
2 https://publicedworks.org/2023/09/7-over-two-years-simply-not-enough/.
3 https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article278765479.html.
4 https://www.al.com/educationlab/2022/04/alabama-gov-kay-ivey-approves-largest-education-budget-in-state-history-historic-teacher-raises.html.
5 https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article283389133.html.
6 https://www.wral.com/story/brandon-lofton-state-budget-without-public-input-or-meaningful-negotiation/21060971/.
7 https://greensboro.com/opinion/editorial/our-opinion-medicaid-expansion-is-only-days-away/article_b83dc7d8-8afd-11ee-8c2f-7f0fabbdb8fe.html.
8 https://www.chronicle.com/article/north-carolina-has-ideas-for-tempering-politics-on-public-college-boards-will-they-go-anywhere?
9 https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article280155684.html.
10 https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article276458026.html.
11 https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/12/08/uva-financial-aid-program-expansion/.
12 https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article282752778.html.
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