Budget

Yesterday, hundreds of North Carolina teachers staged “walk-ins” to protest recent cuts to spending and another year without raises.

But many Republican lawmakers claim the state’s education budget is actually higher than it has ever been. Host Frank Stasio talks with Dave DeWitt, WUNC’s Raleigh Bureau Chief and Education Reporter about the politics behind yesterday’s walk-ins.

On Saturday UNC Chapel Hill inducted its first female chancellor, Carol Folt.

Major cuts have been made to education and training programs at the North Carolina Biotechnology Center.  When the latest state budget was signed, the North Carolina Biotech Center was told it had to cut 27% of its budget.  That meant a cut of $4.6 million.

Norris Tolson is president and CEO of the Biotech Center.  He says an example of programs they had to cut were the Summer Workshops for Educators, that trained 200 teachers a year.

Governor Pat McCrory signed a bill today that requires voters to present a photo ID at the polls, despite opposition from Attorney General Roy Cooper. In addition to requiring a form of photo ID for voters, the bill also shortens early voting by one week. Hours after he signed the bill, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of North Carolina and the Southern Coalition for Social Justice filed a lawsuit challenging the bill.

Governor Pat McCrory has a teaching degree. His grandmother was a teacher and his sister taught for 20 years in Wake County. He says frequently that he respects the profession and that teachers are the most important part of the state’s public education system.

The Governor continued that line of praise in his speech at the North Carolina Chamber of Commerce’s Education summit.

“I have a great admiration for teachers and they have a greater challenge than any of us have in this room at this point in time,” he said.

It depends on what you consider good for business. If you head to the North Carolina Department of Commerce’s website, you can see many of the positive rankings North Carolina has received from business media outlets: No. 1 Best Business Climate from Site Selection in 2012, No. 4 Best State for Business by Forbes in 2012, No. 4 America’s Top States for Business by CNBC in 2012.  Most of the organizations doing the ranking look at a similar group of factors, although they each give those factors different weight in their decisions.

Both houses of the State Legislature have passed a final $20.6 billion dollar budget. Much of today's debate in the House and Senate centered on the cuts to public education. Those cuts include eliminating about 2,000 teacher assistant positions and ending teacher tenure.

"You cut a half a billion dollars out of education in this budget in order to make up for the tax giveaway that you did for the wealthy and the out-of-state corporations," said Democrat Martin Nesbitt,  the Senate Minority Leader.

For many lawmakers and lobbyists, the culmination of five months of work during this biennial long session came when a final budget was released late Sunday night. More than 500 pages and $20.5 billion, the budget was finalized behind closed doors by two men, both Republicans – Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger and House Speaker Thom Tillis.

A busy week at the General Assembly starts today. Republican Leaders in the House and Senate hope to wrap up the session this week. But first they will have to approve a final budget.

That budget was posted online last night (pdf). It contains some provisions that are close to Senate President pro Tem Phil Berger and House Speaker Thom Tillis, who have been meeting behind closed doors for several weeks to hammer it out.

RALEIGH, N.C. - Leaders in the North Carolina House and Senate announced Sunday that they have reached agreement on a $20.6 billion budget that will end teacher tenure and allow taxpayer money to be spent for private school tuition.

Highlights of the budget negotiated by the Republican majority were issued in a news release. The actual appropriations bill was released to the public late Sunday night.