Education

NC currently spends over $9.8 billion, or 52% of the General Fund on education, however the education bureaucracy in North Carolina’s public school systems has increased 19% over the past eight years while student enrollment has increased only 11%. In some school districts, administrators actually increased while student enrollment decreased. Meanwhile, new graduation rates from the state reveal that only 68% of our high school students are graduating while 58% of African-American males do not graduate from high school. We need to reprioritize our education funding on teachers and students instead of administrators.

  • Increase competition among schools to improve school and student performance
    • Co-sponsored SB 106, Remove Cap on the number of Charter Schools. This bill would remove the 100 school cap on charter schools in NC and gives students more alternatives.
    • Co-sponsored SB 1386,
  • Free the hands of local school boards to reward teachers with performance pay.
    • Introduced SB 45, Performance Pay for Certain School Employees. This bill would allow local school boards to consider performance when giving raises.
    • Introduced SB 1014, Local Flexibility Regarding Teacher Pay. This bill would increase flexibility to local schools boards when assigning pay increases for such factors as performance and to meet staffing needs.
  • Introduced SB 47, Lottery Proceeds do not supplant school funds. This bill was requested by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School system because they have not received one penny from the “Education” lottery. This will ensure that schools are actually receiving new money from the lottery instead of just replacing existing funding.
  • Introduced SB 70, Hiring of Retired Teachers. This bill would make it easier to hire retired teachers to assist with teacher shortages.
  • Co-sponsored SB 246, Increase Community College Faculty Salaries.
  • Co-sponsored SB 703, Tax Fairness in Education. This bill would allow for an income tax credit for families choosing not to use the public schools to educate their children

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