Bill retooling North Carolina school-takeover path now law

FILE PHOTO A student takes a standardized test

RALEIGH — Legislation that retools the process by which low-performing North Carolina public schools can be taken over by outside operators has become law.

Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper provided neither his signature nor veto stamp to the bill by late Sunday, so the state constitution says it’s now law.

Cooper says while the bill improved the Innovative School District concept, he’s still “fundamentally opposed” to the idea and of giving control of a school over to a private charter school operator.

Cooper’s office said on Monday he wrote State Board of Education Chairman Eric Davis asking that the board seek more General Assembly spending next year to help the lowest-performing schools get better.

A Robeson County elementary school became the first to be operated through the concept last year.