RALEIGH — Both chambers of the North Carolina General Assembly passed its budget conference report contained in House Bill 10 last week.
The bill includes $248 million in nonrecurring funds to clear the waitlist for the Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP) and $215.5 million in recurring funds is included for scholarship awards for the 2025-26 fiscal year. Education Student Accounts waitlists that cover children with disabilities will get $24.7 million in recurring funds.
The OSP funds would be “retroactive to the beginning of this school year,” and “families would be eligible for a tuition reimbursement from their school.”
Other spending includes $64 million in recurring funds for Community College enrollment growth, and $95 million in recurring funds will go toward K-12 enrollment increases, a combined $377 million in recurring and nonrecurring funds are set for Medicaid, $55.1 million is set aside for infrastructure improvements in Chatham County, and $150 million is budgeted for “major transportation improvements” at the Randolph County megasite.
The House passed the measure on Wednesday by a vote of 67-43. Three Democrats voted for passage; Reps. Carla Cunningham (Mecklenburg), Shelly Willingham (Edgecombe) and Michael Wray (Northampton).
“A responsible state budget is critical to helping North Carolina families weather these tough economic times brought on by the failed policies of the Biden-Harris administration,” House Speaker Tim Moore (R-Kings Mountain) said in a press release.
“By empowering students and parents to choose what type of education best fits their needs, regardless of ZIP code or income, the Opportunity Scholarship Program puts kids and their futures first,” said K-12 Education Co-Chair Rep. Tricia Cotham (R-Mecklenburg), who also noted that clearing waitlist was a “victory” for families.
The Senate passed the measure by a vote of 27-17 down party lines Sept. 9.
Democrats in both chambers spoke in opposition to the bill, mainly regarding two areas: the Opportunity Scholarship Program funding and the provisions requiring sheriffs to cooperate with Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) requests.
House Bill 10 requires jail administrators to determine a prisoner’s legal residency status and if they are unable to determine status, administrators must contact ICE and hold the individual for 48 hours. The ICE compliance requirements become effective on Dec. 1, 2024, and apply to offenses committed on or after that date.
Rep. Destin Hall (R-Caldwell), the primary sponsor of the original House Bill 10, ended debate on the ICE portion, countering Democrats’ remarks made earlier on the floor about people being “rounded up.”
“But what’s been described is nothing that’s in this bill,” Hall said. “And so it’s important to keep in mind that in this bill, we’re only talking about folks who are not only just here illegally, but that they’ve also been charged with a serious crime in our state: murder, rape, other violent crimes; not driving without a license, which I often hear from folks.”
Hall also said that until 2018 in the state, sheriffs complied with ICE detainers voluntarily, adding that a detainer holds a person for up to 48 hours until ICE takes custody.
Hall said when a detainer request is issued, ICE usually takes custody the same day, and those individuals are usually here illegally and have committed crimes before.
“It’s not that they’re out rounding folks up, going into a workplace and just taking a bunch of people out of there. That’s not happening,” said Hall. “It’s certainly not happening under the current administration.”
Durham Sheriff Clarence Birkhead issued a press release ahead of the Senate’s vote pushing back on the ICE provisions in House Bill 10, calling it an “attack on the immigrant community.”
Birkhead is among a handful of sheriffs, including those in Mecklenburg and Wake counties, who have publicly refused to work with ICE.
Overrides of four out of five vetoes Cooper issued during the legislative short session were also completed.
Cooper is likely to veto House Bill 10 and confirmed it at the NC Press Association Conference in Raleigh on Sept. 19, pinning his veto on the additional funding to clear the Opportunity Scholarship Program’s waitlist.
“We won’t continue to be fist in business if we are last in education,” Cooper said at the NC Press Association event and he went on to say, “I will be vetoing this bill this week.”
His remarks echo previous statements on the program.
“Republican legislators are returning to Raleigh to siphon hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars out of public schools and give it to the wealthy through private school vouchers,” Cooper said on Sept. 5. “This would be disastrous for our public schools and the future of our state. They should invest in public education instead so we can give teachers an overdue pay raise.”
