Insider Digest: K-12 education changes considered, plus a new role for tribal ID cards
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This week, we could see the language of a Medicaid bill after the House and Senate reached a deal last week. And while we don’t know yet when we’ll see highly anticipated bills on abortion and sports betting, we know that lawmakers will debate issues around guns, rioting penalties and opioids.
Here are some of the past week’s highlights:
More students for virtual academy
By T. Keung Hui, 3/7/23
The N.C. Charter Schools Advisory Board unanimously recommended Monday allowing N.C. Virtual Academy to have up to 3,100 students this fall at the online charter school.
As part of an ongoing pilot program for virtual charter schools, lawmakers temporarily allowed NC Virtual Academy and N.C. Cyber Academy to serve more students during the pandemic, but that waiver expired.
The N.C. House K-12 Education Committee will consider a bill on Tuesday that would make permanent the permission for higher enrollment. House Bill 149 would also extend the pilot status of the schools through the 2025-26 school year and require the state board to approve at least two more remote charter schools.
COVID relief spending on learning recovery
By Kyle Ingram, 3/3/23
The state’s top education officials updated legislators Thursday on how COVID relief funds were being used to improve schools and universities.
The Department of Public Instruction has invested over $4 million of federal funds in the new Office of Learning Recovery, aiming to study pandemic effects on student and school outcomes. Michael Maher, DPI’s deputy state superintendent, told the Joint Education Appropriations committee Thursday that the department found students showing signs of academic recovery in every subject last year except English II.
Maher said students still aren’t all the way back to pre-pandemic average performances, but are making significant progress.
How tribal ID cards can be used
By Kyle Ingram, 3/3/23
A bill allowing tribal IDs to be used for alcohol and tobacco purchases advanced in the House Thursday.
The bill, HB 153, would qualify tribal enrollment cards of any state or federally recognized American Indian tribe as valid identification to be used for these purchases statewide, as long as the holder is of age.
“They can use their tribal identification card to get on an airplane — TSA recognizes it — but they can’t go to Mecklenburg County and buy a six-pack of beer or a pack of cigarettes,” said John Hardin, a lawyer representing the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.
Health education contract
By T. Keung Hui, 3/3/23
The State Board of Education voted 8-4 along ideological lines Thursday to approve a $630,000 contract with the Poe Center in Raleigh to provide health education to schools.
Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s appointees voted for the three-year contract, which will provide services on topics such as sexual health, substance use prevention and bullying prevention. But Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, Republican State Treasurer Dale Folwell and two appointees of former Republican Gov. Pat McCrory voted against the contract.
State board member Amy White said she couldn’t support the contract “due to significant concerns for my personal faith and moral framework” with the way the Poe Center uses resources to instruct students. White wasn’t dissuaded after State Superintendent Catherine Truitt, a Republican, said that the Poe’s work on sexual health in the contract is limited to sexual risk avoidance education.
Literacy test repeal advances
By Heidi Perez-Moreno, 3/2/23
The House advanced legislation Wednesday that would remove from North Carolina’s constitution a mandate for a literacy test for voters, which was added to the state’s constitution in 1900 during the racist Jim Crow era. It was often used to bar Black voters from casting ballots.
While passage of the federal Voting Rights Act in 1965 rendered the literacy test unenforceable, subsequent efforts to remove it from the constitution have proved fruitless. Voters rejected the option when it appeared on state ballots in 1970, and a bill from last year’s legislative session never gained traction.
Lawmakers push for convention of states
By Heidi Perez-Moreno, 3/2/23
Legislators are pushing for a convention of states that would limit the federal government’s power. A joint resolution between North Carolina’s House and Senate, House Joint Resolution 235, would apply for Congress to call the convention.
House Speaker Tim Moore said he hopes a convention would allow states to adjust congressional term limits, push back regulations on states and businesses and discuss repairing the national debt.
Rick Santorum, a Republican and former U.S. senator for Pennsylvania who currently serves as a senior adviser for the Convention of the States Project, appeared at a press conference by lawmakers Wednesday to voice his support. He said constitutional conventions have passed in 19 states, including Texas and Florida.
