The North Carolina House passed a wide-ranging omnibus bill on Tuesday night that transfers an additional $227 million to the state’s Hurricane Helene Fund, allocates $33.75 million in child care stabilization grants, and includes various regulatory changes that impact the power of several incoming Democratic elected officials.
In addition to transferring funds to the Hurricane Helene fund, the bill also appropriates $27 million to the Department of Agriculture for debris removal and technical assistance, and designates $125 million in highway funds for repairs and reconstruction in the counties impacted by Helene.
Rep. Danny Lambeth, R-Forsyth, said this bill is “just a step” in the state”s Helene recovery.
“This is the third phase that we’ve worked through, but there’s a lot of work still that needs to be done, a lot of questions that need to be done, and still, quite frankly, a lot of money that’s going to have to be spent,” he said on Tuesday night.
The 131-page conference report passed the House 63-46 mostly along party lines, with all Democrats voting against it, and three Republicans who represent western counties voting in the negative: Reps. Mike Clampitt, Karl Gillespie, and Mark Pless.
The bill is scheduled to be voted on by the Senate on Wednesday. If approved, the bill will go to Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, who will then have 10 days to approve or veto the bill, or let it go into law without his signature.
The vast majority of the bill does not explicitly deal with hurricane relief. Because the bill includes statutory changes that would reduce the power of several incoming Democratic elected officials, Cooper is likely to veto the bill. If passed, for example, the bill would strip incoming Democratic Gov. Josh Stein of any appointments to the State Board of Elections. Instead, the bill would give those appointments to the newly elected state auditor, Republican Dave Boliek.
On Tuesday, several House Democrats spoke against the bill, arguing that the General Assembly should focus on Hurricane relief instead of political plays.
“This is a transparent power grab push-through by a supermajority that’s not happy with the recent election results, and you’re calling it a disaster relief bill,” said Rep. Lindsey Prather, D-Buncombe. “This is shameful, and western North Carolina isn’t going to stand for it.”
House Democratic Leader Rep. Robert Reives, II urged Republicans to return to a bipartisan processes of lawmaking. He said that Tuesday’s bill “is the biggest abuse (of power) I have seen since I’ve been here.”
According to an amended adjournment resolution, the General Assembly will no longer meet Thursday, Nov. 21 and will meet on Dec. 2 instead of Dec. 11. As of now, Dec. 2 is the last time the General Assembly will meet before the long session – and before the Republicans lose their supermajority by one vote, according to preliminary vote results.
You can read the full bill text on the General Assembly’s website.
K-12 bill items
The conference report does not include any new Helene aid for public schools.
However, the bill does extend compensation for public school districts in Helene-impacted counties through November, so that any missed instructional days due to Hurricane Helene are still compensated. Initial rounds of hurricane relief provided compensation for September and October.
The bill also includes several policy changes for K-12 public schools and the Department of Public Instruction (DPI).
First, the legislation removes power from the state superintendent — incoming Democratic Superintendent Mo Green — to appeal a final decision by the Charter School Review Board related to grants, renewals, revocations, or amendments of charters. Now, only applicants or charter schools can appeal a final decision by the board.
This move follows legislation passed in August 2023 that removed power from the State Board of Education to approve or deny charter school applications.
The bill also moves the Center for Safer Schools from DPI’s authority to the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI). According to its website, the center is “a statewide customer-focused school safety and crisis prevention resource for over 2500 public schools.”
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According to the bill, the center’s executive director “may enter into a memorandum of understanding” with DPI to disburse various grants to schools.
The bill also repeals the Task Force for Safer Schools, which was established in 2013 to serve as an advisory body to the Center for Safer Schools.
Here’s a look at other K-12 items included in the bill:
- Creates and funds two new Cooperative Innovative High Schools starting in 2024-25: Dare Early College High School and Rockingham County CTE Innovation High School.
- Clarifies that local school districts can be the recipients of sports wagering tax proceed distributions.
- Allocates $120,000 in recurring funds to DPI for North Carolina School for the Deaf for “legal and administrative services” during the 2024-25 fiscal year.
- Moves a special needs pilot program from Alamance, Catawba, and Nash county schools to Cabarrus, Union, and Vance county schools instead to “increase opportunities for students with special needs.” The bill also extends the pilot, requiring DPI to report on interim results in June 2025 and final results in October 2027.
- Makes various updates to the Advanced Teaching Roles (ATR) Program, which allows participating districts to designate up to 15% of teachers in each ATR school as adult leadership teachers and 5% as classroom excellence teachings. Those designations come with a $10,000 and $3,000 bonus, respectively. You can read more starting on page 111 of the bill.
Finally, the bill makes all public school districts eligible to participate in the SparkNC program, instead of only the 18 districts previously participating in the pilot. According to previous EdNC reporting, SparkNC is “using an innovative educational approach to ensure every North Carolina student has the skills to thrive in a world transformed by technology.”
The bill also allows students to earn up to four credits through “Learning Accelerators,” but they may not complete the same learning experience more than once for credit.
It directs DPI to send allocated funds in a directed grant to SparkNC.
“SparkNC shall utilize the grant to partner with and provide services in the maximum number of public school units possible,” the bill says.
Child care
The bill allocates $33.75 million to the Department of Health and Human Services to provide child care programs with stabilization grants for another three months beyond December, through March 2025.
“Quite frankly, we’re just kicking that can down the road until we have a solution,” said Rep. Donny Lambeth, R-Forsyth, on the House floor Tuesday.
Advocates were asking for $100 million to extend the grants beyond December, with the hope that next year’s long legislative session will bring more funding. Program closures and tuition hikes for parents are likely without additional funding, a child care provider survey from February found.
Lambeth said legislators have been working with the child care industry and “looking at creative models” while they have been on breaks from the session. He said he expects the legislature to continue to provide some funding through the next year, as well as in next year’s budget.
Child care lobbyists have been active, Lambeth said, in raising child care challenges this year. Child care programs have struggled to pay teachers competitive wages as federal pandemic aid has run out, and most parents lack the ability to pay more.
Postsecondary education
The bill also does not allocate any new funding toward Helene relief for community colleges.
The legislation does amend previously awarded grants to two community colleges, Fayetteville Technical and Montgomery community colleges.
A previous $10 million grant to Fayetteville Tech was previously awarded for a regional fire center. Now, $3 million will go toward the center, and $7 million of that funding will go to a regional truck driving center instead.
A previous $1.5 million grant to Montgomery Community College for a dental hygienist program can now be used for capital improvements and equipment for dental and nursing programs at the college, per the bill.
The bill also transfers up to $1 million to the N.C. Community College System (NCCCS) “to conduct a digital credential pilot program with a digital credential provider.”
Finally, the bill also expands the Career and College Ready Graduate program, which requires the State Board of Community Colleges and State Board of Education to offer opportunities for college remediation for students prior to high school graduation.
The bill allows the remediation classes to also take place during the summer immediately preceding a student’s senior year.
Here are other postsecondary items included in the bill:
- Grants the chancellor of UNC-Asheville the ability to use leftover tuition grant funding from Helene relief funds in their “discretion to help UNCA.”
- Establishes the Office of Learning Research, allocating $1.5 million recurring to the UNC Board of Governors (and then to the North Carolina Collaboratory) to “identify and evaluate the efficacy and efficiency of programs, activities, initiatives, procedures, and any other factors related to elementary & secondary education in the state” beginning in the 2024-25 school year. This office is supposed to support public schools, university leaders, and elected officials in making evidence-based decisions.
- Allocates $13 million in nonrecurring funds to UNC Board of Governors “to adjust funds provided to constituent institutions, as determined by the enrollment funding model for performance outcomes related to student success, affordability, and productivity.”
- Finally, the bill allocates $7.8 million in nonrecurring funds to offset enrollment-related funding losses in the UNC System.
Elections
In addition to removing the governor’s appointment power to the State Board of Elections, the bill also transfers the State Board of Elections to the state auditor starting in 2025.
“Under this transfer, the State Board of Elections shall exercise all its prescribed statutory powers independently of the State Auditor, except that 14 budgeting functions shall be performed under the direction and supervision of the State Auditor,” the bill says.
The bill also includes a number of technical changes that speed up when ballots in future elections must be received and voted by. The bill does not include additional funding for local boards of elections to meet these increased deadlines.
Karen Brinson Bell, the state’s elections director, told WRAL those rules would make it more likely that valid ballots are thrown out in future elections.
“State Board staff were not consulted about this significant piece of legislation that transfers authority of the State Board of Elections and makes substantial administrative changes that may make it impossible for the county boards of elections to adequately ensure every eligible ballot cast is counted, especially in high turnout elections,” she said.
You can view more of the proposed changes regarding elections starting on page 33 of the bill.
Other bill highlights
- The bill directs the new Office of Learning Research to choose tests for third and eighth graders to study the performance of students in private schools receiving Opportunity Scholarships compared to outcomes from students attending public schools. The testing would begin in the 2026-27 school year.
- The bill establishes the following state agencies as eligible for DPI’s systems of support and grants for local school districts: the Governor Morehead School for the Blind of the Department of Public Instruction, the Eastern North Carolina School for the Deaf of the Department of Public Instruction, and the North Carolina School for the Deaf of the Department of Public Instruction.
- The bill allocates $50 million to the Office of Recovery and Resiliency for the Rebuild NC program for projects helping homeowners rebuild after disasters.
- The bill allows the legislature to appoint two special superior court judges by legislation with maximum terms of eight years, instead of being elected like most state judgeships are. It also repeals two superior court districts, one in Wake and another in Forsyth.
- The bill reduces the governor’s appointment power over vacancies in the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals. The bill would require the governor to pick from a list of three candidates chosen by the executive committee of the political party the vacating judge was affiliated with when elected.
- The bill limits the power of the attorney general, incoming Democrat Jeff Jackson, through policies like banning the office from taking stances in court that don’t align with General Assembly leaders.
You can read the full bill here.
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