The state Board of Education is considering nearly $800 million in funding requests — not including teacher pay raises — ahead of next year’s state budget cycle.
State officials said Wednesday that the board will likely request raises for veteran teachers; last year’s largely benefited starting teachers. The board is also likely to renew its request for a moratorium on expanding the state's private school voucher program. The board would ask lawmakers to direct the money saved to public schools.
State officials outlined 14 more specific budget requests. State board Vice Chair Alan Duncan warned that the state board might be asking lawmakers for more than $1 billion.
“I think we all should do some hard thinking about these topics in terms of how we prioritize them ... with the possibility and perhaps the expectation that we will not be able to get everything that we want,” Duncan said Wednesday.
The largest request is an allotment of $300 million each year of the two-year budget cycle to help schools buy high-quality instructional materials like textbooks, software and lesson plans.
“The board has adopted new standards for English Language Arts and Mathematics within the last year,” said DPI Senior Director of Government Affairs and Strategy Geoff Coltrane. “Those standards will be implemented over the next two to three years out in our districts, which means that (public schools) will need to adopt new instructional materials for those standards.”
Coltrane said that number seemed high, but it would actually put North Carolina’s spending on instructional materials more in line with other states. Coltrane said North Carolina allots around $37.15 per student for instructional materials; if granted, the request would boost that amount to $200. Texas allots around $175 per year. South Carolina spent $240 after updating its math standards.
Other requests include a $117 million annual increase to the state’s fund to help schools with capital needs, bringing its total amount to $400 million. That represents a “drop in the bucket” compared to the total need, Coltrane said. The state recently assessed $18 billion in facilities needs over the next five years. The fund, Coltrane said, “does help a lot of our lower, under-resourced districts with their school construction needs across the state.”
The board will also weigh a request for $115 million to help districts purchase new devices for students.
The board plans to submit its budget priorities to the governor by January.
