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States, not the federal government, provide the vast majority of public school funding. NC currently is $3,300 per student below the national average of $12,600 per student. The NC state budget surplus in the tens of billions of dollars is many times large enough to make up this difference. Raising PPE (per-pupil expenditure) to at or above the national average will immediately allow NC school districts to replace outdated school buildings and equipment, increase positions in the buildings, increase educator pay, and other improvements to better serve our students.

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Implement a proposal on a State level that calls for a universal childhood education system. Universal meaning no one school has better or worse resources because of income inequality. Funding high quality education for every person is a necessary step that ensures the nation’s competitiveness on a global scale, without having to outsource highly technical work. If we fully fund the recommendations made in the Quality Education for All Act, we would be able to give each student a more level playing field when they begin school.

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The Green New Deal for Public Schools proposes $1.43 trillion in new funding over 10 years that would address the crumbling public school buildings from decades of disinvestment, redlining and cycles of poverty and trauma, particularly for Black and brown children, while investing in tackling climate change and environmental inequities through a national climate justice curriculum.

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Increase federal funding for these institutions. This will enable the creation of a more diverse and stable teaching force for K-12 public schools. These investments will enable America’s HBCUs, TCUs, and MSIs to tackle long standing inequities in postsecondary education and make the U.S. more competitive on the global stage.

Provide two years of subsidized tuition and expand programs in high-demand fields at HBCUs, TCUs, and MSIs.

Provide two years of subsidized tuition for students from families earning less than $125,000 enrolled in a four-year HBCU, TCU, or MSI.

Expand existing institutional aid grants to HBCUs, TCUs, and MSIs, which can be used by these institutions to strengthen their academic, administrative, and fiscal capabilities, including by creating or expanding educational programs in high-demand fields (e.g., STEM, computer sciences, nursing, and allied health), with additional funds directed towards building a pipeline of skilled health care workers with graduate degrees.

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Providing for an additional four years of free, public education for our nation’s children. $200 billion for free universal preschool for all three- and four-year-olds. $109 billion for two years of free community college so that every student has the ability to obtain a degree or certificate. Approximately $85 billion investment in Pell Grants, which would help students seeking a certificate or a two- or four-year degree. $62 billion to invest in evidence-based strategies to strengthen completion and retention rates at community colleges and institutions that serve students from our most disadvantaged communities.

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Taxpayer money should not be used to fund private schools. No increases in voucher funding until each other policy priority in this platform has been fully funded. Pass legislation that prohibits the use of taxpayer funds at religious schools in the form of vouchers.

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The national average teacher salary in 2019-20 was $63,645. In NC, the average educator salary is $54,682, although most pay bumps in the last decade in NC have focused on the early end of the salary schedule. Additionally, many classified staff members in NC public schools make much less than $15 an hour, widely considered a minimum living wage. In order to retain educators, make NC public schools more attractive to potential educators and other employees, and increase the quality of education our students receive, fund a salary increase for all certified staff to the national average, and all classified staff to at least $15/hour, within the next 3 years.

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Create a national comprehensive paid family and medical leave program. The program will ensure workers receive partial wage replacement to take time to bond with a new child, care for a seriously ill loved one, deal with a loved one’s military deployment, find safety from sexual assault, stalking, or domestic violence, heal from their own serious illness, or take time to deal with the death of a loved one.

It will guarantee twelve weeks of paid parental, family, and personal illness/safe leave

ensure workers get three days of bereavement leave per year starting in year one.

The program will provide workers up to $4,000 a month, with a minimum of two-thirds of average weekly wages replaced, rising to 80 percent for the lowest wage workers. We estimate this program will cost $225 billion over a decade.

Also include the Healthy Families Act which will require employers to allow workers to accrue seven days paid sick leave per year to seek preventative care for them or their family– such as getting a flu shot, recovering from short-term illness, or caring for a sick child or family member or a family member with disability-related needs.

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Use best models for student/teacher ratio based on up-to-date learning models including time for independent, out-of-classroom learning, coaching models, remote learning opportunities, (private one-on-one meetings). Rethink the traditional classroom as primary site for pedagogy (based on lessons learned the past 18 months

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such as school psychologists, social workers, nurses and mental health professionals and remove school resource officers as first responders. Student discipline centered on restorative practices and centering SEL (Social and Emotional Learning).

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Career-long learning should be the norm for teachers and can be supported with salary boosts and well-funding training choices.

Invest $1.6 billion to provide educators with opportunities to obtain additional certifications in high-demand areas like special education, bilingual education, and certifications that improve teacher performance. This funding will support over 100,000 educators, with priority for public school teachers with at least two years of experience at schools with a significant portion of low-income students or significant teacher shortages.

Invest $2 billion to support programs that leverage teachers as leaders, such as high-quality mentorship programs for new teachers and teachers of color. These programs are proven tools to improve both student outcomes and teacher retention by providing new teachers with the support they need.

Plan will also leverage teachers as leaders of other key priorities within their school buildings, and compensate teachers for this work, recognizing the incredible expertise of our veteran educators, and their value in supporting the next generation of great teachers.

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By:

Leveraging investments in tuition-free community college and teacher scholarships to support those who wish to earn a bachelor’s degree or another credential that supports their work as an educator, or to become an early childhood educator.

Educators will receive job-embedded coaching, professional development, and wages that reflect the importance of their work.

All employees in participating pre-K programs and Head Start will earn at least $20 per hour, and those with comparable qualifications will receive compensation commensurate with that of kindergarten teachers.

Congress and the North Carolina General Assembly would double scholarships for future teachers from $4,000 to $8,000 per year while earning their degree, strengthening the program, and expanding it to early childhood educators.

Invest $2.8 billion in Grow Your Own programs and year-long, paid teacher residency programs, which have a greater impact on student outcomes, teacher retention, and are more likely to enroll teacher candidates of color.

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Public schools serve each and every student in North Carolina. Keep politics out of our schools by electing Boards of Education on a non-partisan basis. There should be educator representation on every board.

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Connect schools, teachers, farms, families and communities to improve student nutrition, health and academic performance. Farm to school programs support local food procurement, school gardens and nutrition education. Menu planning and food purchasing should also be informed by school family cultures and traditions.

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A significant percentage of NC residents, especially school-age students, live in homes without Internet access. This caused access gaps for students during COVID shutdowns, but will continue to affect them in the long run.

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A high-quality early education program sets up children for academic success. Strong early literacy skills establish later success in reading.

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At home visits to assess the increase in drop outs which is already occurring. Provide extensive after school and weekend remediation opportunities to help recover from lost educational opportunities. Inventory at-home digital resources for students.

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Students are tested to exhaustion in every grade starting in kindergarten, leading to less time for actual teaching, and burnout of both students and staff. Standardized testing results are also directly linked through legislation to funding, school report card grades, and teacher bonuses from the state and local levels. Reducing the standardized testing requirements, especially for early learners, will allow tests to be used formatively instead of as high-stakes pressure cookers and funding threats.

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by grade level and subject to distribute free digital lessons/ readings/assessments. Review content for accuracy, clarity, and opportunities for critical and kinaesthetic learning. Encourage depth not breadth as an overall guiding principle.

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...That:

engages students in the science of climate change;

probes the social and economic roots of climate change;

emphasizes the brutal inequality that results in those least responsible for the crisis being hit the hardest;

alerts students to the breadth of global activism for climate justice;

helps students see how climate justice is inextricably linked to addressing broader issues of racism, militarism, imperialism, and class exploitation;

invites students to imagine a society based on principles of ecology and social equality; and

encourages students to come to see themselves as activists for a green and just world.

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To address the large partisan and social divides in the nation that has led to increase of political unrest, hate crimes, anti-government and white nationalist as well as voter suppression it is imperative for the defense of domestic tranquility and national stability for the federal government. This would include:

Fully funded national K-12 Civics Education.

Invest in state and local 6-12 civics education curriculum per state.

Civics education would be a mandated full-year focus and course in elementary, middle, and high school.

Service-Learning Program that will create opportunities for students between ages 10-18 to engage in civic and local community support and projects.

National Service Learning Scholarship and diploma credential that would provide free community college or 2-years free of public or private college with completion.

Ethnic and multicultural studies curriculum mandated in all secondary schools.

Adoption of national social and emotional learning standards for K-12.

Adoption of national social justice standards for secondary humanities courses (Language Arts, Social Sciences, and History)

National and state museum grants that provide field trips, professional development, and learning collaboratives with public education institutions, educators, and historical and cultural museums, historical sites, historical and cultural foundations, and ethnic and cultural centers.

Increase in bilingual and foreign language immersion programs for middle and secondary schools.

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With an increased number of teachers, teacher assistants, school psychologists, social workers, nurses and mental health professionals, bullying is more likely to be noticed, addressed and stopped. There would be more available resources for staff to clearly address and continuously follow up on situations of bullying instead of hastily ‘dealing’ with it and letting the burden of bullying fall on the victim and the victim’s family.

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...such as school psychologists, social workers, nurses and mental health professionals and remove school resource officers as first responders. Student discipline centered on restorative practices and centering SEL (Social and Emotional Learning). Hire student support staff and teacher assistant positions back to the pre-2008 recession levels. Since 2008, the NC legislature has cut thousands of teacher assistant and support staff positions across the state. Schools desperately need those educators, especially in the younger grades.Having more educated, caring adults in our school buildings will improve NC public education by a lot.

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...which stresses supportive intervention rather than coercion and isolation as a first response. Address core factors which motivate unacceptable behaviors, most of which are found outside the school site. School Resource Officers, SRO’s, to the extent they remain, should not carry weapons and be trained in de-escalation techniques.

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I think something more specific opposing the attack in Critical Race Theory (CRT), which is really an attack on any form of anti-racist education.

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I think something more specific opposing the attack in Critical Race Theory (CRT), which is really an attack on any form of anti-racist education.

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Increase funding available for high school equivalency and credit recovery programs across the state to enable those students who have already dropped out to get the credentials necessary to move forward with their educational and career goals.

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Increase funding available for high school equivalency and credit recovery programs across the state to enable those students who have already dropped out to get the credentials necessary to move forward with their educational and career goals.

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Resources will help us get our teachers what they need

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Funding is important, but when it   goes to the same old people administering the money, it doesn't solve the problems.  Need forms of accountability for how the funding is used; at least some form os public report cards.

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Funding is important, but when it   goes to the same old people administering the money, it doesn't solve the problems.  Need forms of accountability for how the funding is used; at least some form os public report cards.

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Remove the ban on municipally owned ISPs!

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Remove the ban on municipally owned ISPs!

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Implement incentive programs to encourage for-profit ISPs to expand coverage to rural and low-income communities.

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Implement incentive programs to encourage for-profit ISPs to expand coverage to rural and low-income communities.