NC lawmakers pass child care funding and authorize teacher raises amid budget impasse
On what was expected to be the final day of legislative business this week, state lawmakers passed provisions extending funding for child care centers and authorizing previously passed teacher raises to go into effect.
After budget talks between the House and Senate broke down, Republican leaders in both chambers agreed to pass standalone bills that allocate $67.5 million in funding for child care centers through the end of the year, and formally authorize pay raises for teachers and other school employees.
Those raises, for the fiscal year that starts on Monday, were passed in last year’s two-year budget, but needed additional language to actually take effect. The House approved both bills near-unanimously on Wednesday. The Senate approved both bills Thursday afternoon, sending them to Gov. Roy Cooper.
Child care funding has been one of the biggest issues this session, with advocates visiting the General Assembly multiple times over the past few months to call on lawmakers to extend funds provided during COVID-19 that allowed centers to pay employees, cover rent and mortgage costs, and subsidize child care costs for some families.
Without additional funding, many of these centers were expected to shut down or raise tuition at the end of June. The funding under the bill passed Thursday should extend stabilization grant funding through the end of the year.
As for teacher pay, last year’s GOP-passed state budget included raises based on experience ranging from 3.6% to 10.8% across two years.
In order for the raises to be paid out, however, lawmakers needed to enact legislation to authorize the money, as previously reported by The News & Observer.
Lawmakers were expected to take action on these issues through a budget adjustment bill, which is supposed to pass by the end of June but rarely does so. But negotiations on a budget bill broke down between the House and Senate and it seemed possible that the chambers would go home and leave these issues hanging.
But on Wednesday, the House took an alternative route and revived a couple of Senate bills — originally on unrelated issues — that hadn’t seen any movement in the House since early April. A budget compromise is not expected.
House Speaker Tim Moore said on Thursday that what the House is proposing “should take care of the backlog. That number wasn’t pulled out of thin air. My understanding is that was a number that was provided by” the state’s health and human services.
DHHS has “some additional funds — some additional federal funds — that have not been purposed that they can also use to put in at this point. And we certainly want the agencies to use federal funds first because a lot of those funds revert back if not used,” Moore said.
The N&O has reached out to DHHS to get more clarity on any additional funding and for how long this additional funding will help continue stabilization grants.
Other education priorities and arrests
Another key piece of legislation the GOP sought to pass in the budget adjustment bill was additional funding for private school vouchers. The House and Senate budget adjustment proposals included millions to clear a backlog for vouchers under the Opportunity Scholarship program. The chambers have not passed separate legislation to fund the voucher program.
On this, Moore said that members in the House “want to make sure that if we’re talking about education, that we’re doing so comprehensively. That we’re also addressing the traditional schools as well.”
On police arresting protesters, Moore said “there’s a right way and a wrong way to go about advocating for your position.”
“My understanding was they were creating a disturbance,” he said. “I didn’t see it ... so I don’t know what happened.”
NC General Assembly Police Chief Martin Brock told reporters Wednesday that protesters were arrested after they did not quiet down following a noise complaint.
Under the Dome
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