Here is the latest from the NC School Board Association; 2013 Legislative Session Narrative In the 2012 election cycle, the Republican Party built on their majority by gaining nine additional seats in the House and two additional seats in the Senate, giving them veto-proof majorities of 77-43 and 33-17, respectively. With the victory of former Charlotte mayor Pat McCrory in the gubernatorial election, the Republican Party found itself with unified control of the executive and legislative branches of North Carolina government for the 2013 session. School Board Governance and County Commission Relations North Carolina school board members were faced this session with a series of unprecedented proposals to undermine, disrupt, and interfere with their authority to supervise and administer local school systems as autonomous governing bodies. • School Property Ownership Transfer (Senate Bill 236/House Bill 726). NCSBA fought all session against an attack on school boards’ basic powers to own and control school property. Any governing body charged with supervising and administering a service delivery system needs to have the power to own and control the property and facilities associated with that service in order to effectively carry out their duties. Yet some lawmakers and county commissions this session viewed school boards as the lone exception to this fundamental principal, telling school boards that they needed to focus on “academics,” that they lacked the knowledge necessary to be entrusted with property ownership powers, and that they were poor stewards of public monies. It started when the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners, at the behest of the Wake County Board of Commissioners Chair, adopted a plank on their 2013-14 Legislative Goals in January in support of legislation authorizing counties to seize school property. Senator Neal Hunt (R-Wake) followed by introducing Senate Bill 236, allowing county commissions statewide to unilaterally assume school property ownership powers simply by passing a resolution declaring their intent to do so. SB 236 was turned into a local bill applicable in nine counties, passing the Senate in this form in May. After idling for over a month, the bill was calendared for consideration by the House Government Committee. NCSBA conveyed to committee members of both parties that SB 236 as a local bill still presented a threat to all school boards because if enacted it would be easy for any county commission to persuade their local legislator to be included in the law, and eventually enough counties would be added to make it a statewide law. NCSBA also worked to inform committee members how academics and school property/placement design decisions are intimately linked and how transferring these powers would increase bureaucracy, overlap, and duplication in public school systems. Acknowledging these factors, a bi-partisan majority of committee members ultimately voted to not give SB 236 a favorable report. The Senate resurrected the school property transfer language in a new bill which had crossed over from the House in a different form, House Bill 726. The HB 726 language was written to apply only in Wake County and was quickly approved by the Senate chamber during the last week of session. Sen. Hunt said during floor debate that legislators had approached him wanting to add their counties to the bill and he told them they should file their own local bill, confirming that even if applied to one county, the bill would open the door to a flood of other local bills and eventually become a statewide bill. NCSBA accelerated its efforts and helped more House members understand why the bill was local in name only and why a transfer of these powers would decrease the efficacy of local school system governance. A bi-partisan majority of the House voted to not concur in the Senate changes by a vote of 62-54. SB 236, meanwhile, was converted into a different bill by the House but the Senate declined to concur in those changes, meaning that SB 236 will begin the 2014 session in conference with potential for the school property language to be resurrected at any time. While the defeat of efforts this session to transfer school property represented a monumental victory for public education and school board governance, what transpired is sure to be just the opening salvo of a sustained, multi-year struggle. • Local Budget Dispute Legislation o Senators Warren Daniel (R-Burke), Ralph Hise (R-Mitchell), and Harry Brown (R-Onslow) in April filed Senate Bill 674, which would have repealed the mediation and trial option for local school boards to contest the sufficiency of county commissions’ local appropriations for public school operating and capital expenses. Without this option, school boards would have no mechanism by which to challenge local appropriations that fall short of what they need to fulfill their duty to provide a sound, basic education and would be forced to accept whatever funding level county commissioners deem to be adequate. Elimination of this provision would also remove an important check that incentivizes county commissioners to take school board concerns seriously even if the dispute does not reach the mediation and trial stage. SB 674 was discussed by the Senate Education Committee but did not receive a vote either there or in the full Senate chamber, making it ineligible for consideration the remainder of session. Similar language could be proposed in future sessions. o House Bill 765 was another bill that touched on this topic. As originally written it would have engrained into statute that, of the four considerations a jury would be allowed to consider in evaluating the adequacy of county funding levels for public schools, only one would be a local school board concern- the budgetary request. NCSBA worked with the bill sponsor to change this language to ensure juries also took account of the school board’s fiscal policies, financial resources, and educational goals and policies. The bill was enacted into law on June 19. • Local Bills Changing School Board Structures and Powers. Although NCSBA does not normally take positions on local legislation, one enacted local bill-HB 491-was of such negative precedent-setting import that NCSBA actively opposed it. This bill divested the Lee County school board of their power to employ their own School Resource Officers. There were also a number of bills that passed to restructure individual school boards, change their method of election from nonpartisan to partisan, and change district lines. One consistent trend during discussion of these types of bills this session, particularly the local bills touching on school property, was for legislators to offer the justification that “my county commission” wants the bill but then remain silent upon being confronted with the fact that their school board opposed the bill and was not consulted in its development. Silence to the concerns and thoughts of school board members was particularly noticeable in February when House Speaker Thom Tillis hosted an “education week” in which educators were invited to the House floor to share thoughts on education issues. Teachers, superintendents, principals, charter school figures, and even nonpublic school advocates were invited to “education week” and brought together to form educational working groups; the one group omitted from the “education week” invitation list- local school board members. School Choice The school choice movement scored a number of resounding victories during the session, furthering North Carolina’s trend away from the traditional concept of public education as a collective good. • School Vouchers. On July 26, 2013, North Carolina became the latest state to establish a school voucher program. Section 8.29 of the 2013-15 fiscal biennium budget authorized taxpayer funded vouchers starting in 2014-15 of up to $4,200 per year for students from certain income levels to attend private schools. The legislative language had been introduced as a separate bill, House Bill 944, which was sponsored by Reps. Rob Bryan (R-Mecklenburg), Brian Brown (R-Pitt), Marcus Brandon (D-Guilford), and Ed Hanes (D-Forsyth). NCSBA pointed out that the eligibility requirements in the bill as filed (up to $70,000 for a family of four) would have made the voucher program the most expansive in the country among similar programs and successfully urged the bill sponsors to reduce the qualifying level while remaining opposed to the voucher program in principle. HB 944 with the reduced income qualifying level received two days of hearings and was approved by the House Education Committee in May. After it was approved by House Education, HB 944 was sent to the House Appropriations Committee, which included it in the House’s proposed budget. Numerous attempts were made to remove the voucher language from the budget as it moved through the House. The voucher journey culminated in House Speaker Tillis taking unprecedented action to come to the chamber floor and speak against an amendment put forth by one of HB 944’s primary sponsors (Rep. Hanes) to remove the language. The amendment was ultimately defeated and the voucher language remained as part of the compromise budget. One bill proposed that did not move was legislation to give an income tax credit to parents who homeschool their children. • Charter Schools. Lawmakers further deregulated charter schools this session. HB 250 inserted the legislature into a mediation process between a charter school and a school district, allowing the charter school to expand into new grade levels without concern for the documented devastating impact it would have on the public school district and its lone high school. Legislators also passed SB 337, which abolishes impact statements the State Board of Education currently uses to evaluate a charter school’s ramifications on a local school district. Earlier versions of the bill would have levied an 8% interest penalty on school districts that did not transfer their local current expense funds within 30 days, and authorized attorneys’ fees only for charter schools that prevail in litigation. NCSBA worked closely with bill sponsor to get these provisions removed or modified in the final bill. Protections against monies like Pre-K funds from having to be shared with charter schools also remained in-tact this session. Language abolishing Fund 8 was proposed in one bill that did not move. It appeared again in an amendment to HB 273 during a morning committee hearing but was removed later that evening after NCSBA mobilized the membership and successfully engaged legislators in opposition. Virtual charter schools and capital funds for charter schools were other lingering threats that made brief appearances this session. Other Legislative Action • Discretionary Cut Elimination. NCSBA’s top funding priority was fulfilled this session as the enacted budget included full elimination of the recurring discretionary cut which had been hampering school districts’ budget planning and formulation process over the past four years. The discretionary cuts were partially replaced by line-item reductions to three allotments and school districts ended up gaining $65.7 million after the adjustments. • Teacher Career Status Reform. The 2013-15 fiscal biennium budget included a provision to change the system of career status for teachers to a system of renewable contracts of 1, 2, or 4 years. Sen. Berger initially proposed this language as part of his second omnibus education reform package. NCSBA worked with Sen. Berger’s office throughout session to improve a number of provisions and to try to grandfather teachers who have earned career status as well as teachers who are in the pipeline. Sen. Berger’s final legislative language did provide that currently tenured teachers have until 2018 to transition into the new system but did not grandfather current teachers who have not earned career status. • A-F School Performance Grades. The General Assembly considered various legislative attempts this session to recalibrate the A-F grading formula to allow for the important measure of growth. Three different times the House passed language supported by NCSBA, NCASA, and DPI to increase a school’s grade up by one letter grade for achieving expected growth, as well as norm the test results, and delay implementation of the grades by one year. The Senate offered a competing proposal to indicate growth on the school’s end of year report card but continue to omit it from the letter grade calculation. When the Senate budget was released, a more favorable idea was included to weigh growth by 20% and school composite scores by 80%. This language was included in the final budget along with a delay of the grades by one year. The first series of grades will be issued no earlier than August 2014. • Parental Rights Standard. A bill was also filed this session to establish a statutory parental rights standard. This bill would have incentivized endless and expensive litigation over routine school district actions. HB 711 was eventually turned into a bill to study parental rights issues but did not pass the General Assembly in 2013.
Posted on: Fri, 02 Aug 2013 22:32:07 +0000
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