Three educational measures in the General Assembly, initially denigrated as part of an “extremist agenda” by opponents, ended up gaining significant support from both Republicans and Democrats and becoming law.
Senate Bill 8, House Bill 344, and House Bill 48 proved to be a trifecta for parents seeking additional choices for the education of their children. The first measure ended the statewide cap on public charter schools, set at 100 for more than a decade. The second provides tax credits to parents of children with disabilities who are not being served by their current public school. The final one ends four end-of-course standardized tests for students that are not mandated by federal law.
Terry Stoops, director of education studies at the John Locke Foundation, said a lot of positive results came from the legislative session.
“Some of it was surprising,” he said. “Even with the prediction that these laws would bring on Armageddon, it was a good session. I feel each side got what they wanted. The laws lay a good foundation, some of which we’ve needed to do for years. It was a good start. It’s a blow to the status quo, and parents have emerged the winners.”
Darrell Allison, president of Parents for Educational Freedom in North Carolina, a grass-roots coalition committed to educational reform throughout the state, said the session was a success for those committed to excellence in education.
“There’s been strong leadership this year and it’s been a good paradigm shift on moving education forward into the 21st century,” he said. “We couldn’t be happier.”
Allison said PEFNC’s 60,000 supporters have led the charge in aggressively chipping away at ineffective education laws.
One of PEFNC’s priorities was S.B. 8, the legislation designed to completely lift the public charter school cap.
The bill started out in a flurry of controversy. House Minority Leader Joe Hackney, D-Orange, labeled it as a measure of the “extreme right–wing agenda.” He, along with other Democratic opponents, said the bill would damage traditional public schools by siphoning millions of dollars in funds for education, nutrition programs. and transportation.
After going through a series of alterations and revisions, the bill finally passed 45-0 in the Senate and 104-5 in the House. Gov. Bev Perdue signed it into law in June.
Another PEFNC-backed bill that received overwhelming bipartisan support was H.B. 344, Tax Credits for Children with Disabilities. The bill allows special needs students in the public education system to receive tax credits for education if they are not being properly served in their school. Parents can use the credit — as much as $3,000 per semester or $6,000 per year — to offset the costs of tuition at either a private school or at a public school that charges tuition.
The bill also provides a trust fund of money to shore up special education programs at public schools where students choose to stay.
“It’s huge,” Allison said. “As an organization we’ve been working on this for four years. We have now laid the groundwork to see all schools meet the needs of special needs students.”
Although the bill passed by a 94-20 in the House and 44-5 in the Senate, the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina claimed the new law would place the state on a “slippery slope.”
In a statement, ACLU-NC said: “By creating an outlet by which students with disabilities may leave the public schools rather than finding a way to encourage public schools to provide a sound basic education to all students, H.B. 344 sets up a precedent for simply allowing certain defined classes of underserved students to flee the public school system if they can afford to do so.”
Julia Adams, assistant director of government relations for the ARC of North Carolina, a nonprofit that advocates for people with developmental disabilities, said the ARC has supported this “hotly debated topic” for years.
“This is a big bill for North Carolina,” she said. “It’s very tightly drawn and I was very impressed with the bipartisan support. It’s a positive piece of legislation that will help developmental, intellectual, blind, and hearing-impaired children in the state. We believe it’s a very fair and balanced bill that allows parents better options to better serve their students.”
Another bill winning bipartisan support was H.B. 48, which would do away with some standardized tests in courses including history, science, economics, and mathematics.
Early on, Wake County Superior Court Judge Howard Manning had warned legislators against the legal ramifications of the potential new law. Manning oversees the Leandro court decision, ensuring that low-income school districts live up to the state constitution’s guarantee of a “sound, basic education” for all students.
Manning’s warning did not deter Rep. Bryan Holloway, R-Rockingham, from sponsoring the bill in hopes the state could eliminate unnecessary or ineffective testing.
“I was a history teacher for four years and saw, firsthand, how we are taking all creativity out of the classroom,” he said. “We are making robots out of the kids.”
Holloway said the state could do much better for children and that parents and 95 percent of teachers statewide agreed.
“State-mandated testing is not a part of a sound and basic education for children,” he said. “Testing does quite the opposite.”
Perdue allowed the bill to pass, unsigned, into law.
“Personally, I believe the tests now used in school systems are due for change,” Perdue said. “I’ve talked to many teachers, and heard from education leaders across the state. It’s clear that current testing does not accomplish our shared goal of excellent teachers in every classroom and the best schools for our children in every community.”
Perdue said she does not support eliminating all tests from the school system. Instead, she encouraged leaders in the state to develop a process for identifying areas in testing that need improvement.
Stoops said it is his hope that leaders will replace the repealed standardized testing with high-quality measurements that will allow North Carolina educators to compare our results with those of students across the nation.
Karen Welsh is a contributor to Carolina Journal.