NCAE
NEWS BULLETIN September
2015
NORTH CAROLINA ASSOCIATION OF EDUCATORS
Volume 46, No. 2
General Assembly Inches Closer to A Budget Who would have thought that as we celebrate a Labor Day weekend, a General Assembly with a supermajority of one party would not have a final state budget in place? The beginning of the fiscal year was July 1, but state lawmakers have given themselves three extensions to pass a spending plan. The latest extension will expire on September 18. The state is operating on a temporary budget until then. House and Senate budget negotiators are inching closer to a budget deal. Lawmakers previously agreed to an overall spending target of $21.7 billion, meaning the House would need to cut more than $400 million out of its proposed budget. All indications are that the Senate is moving closer to the House position on “Our students deserve a quality, respected teacher in the classroom, and they deserve a legislature that will stop continually shortchanging them on the resources that will help make them successful.” -- NCAE President Rodney Ellis
funding teacher assistants, but now the sticking point may be over whether to give local school districts flexibility with the money. The House budget would fund teacher assistants at the current level, and the Senate budget would eliminate 8,500 TAs. One of the other sticking points in the education section of the budget is over funding of driver’s education. An agreement still has not been announced on additional textbook and digital resource funding. The House budget included an NCAE-initiated proposal to increase the allotment by
more than $48 million. The Senate included a much smaller increase of $29 million. Lawmakers have already announced an agreement on pay. Under the agreement, most educators and state employees would receive a $750 bonus around the end of the year. Those teachers moving up a salary step tier would receive those increases, and those who have reached the end of the step range would receive a hold-harmless payment. An agreement had already been reached earlier this session to raise the minimum salary for early career teachers from $33,000 to $35,000. Previously, the House budget proposed a 2 percent across-the-board raise for all educators. The Senate voted for a sliding pay raise scale based on experience, with the most veteran teachers receiving the lowest raise, or in some cases no raise at all. The Senate did
not offer raises to Education Support Professionals. The decisions our local, state, and federal elected officials make have an impact every day in our classrooms, in our professions, and in our personal lives. That’s why it’s important to have propublic education candidates at every level. It’s critical that educators stay engaged when choices are being made and that we speak with a unified voice to have the most influence on these decisions.
You can view a complete sideby-side comparison of the House and Senate education budgets on the members-only section of our Web site.