RALEIGH — The Public School Forum of North Carolina unveiled its legislative priority list for 2025-26 at its annual “Eggs & Issues” event held at the McKimmon Center on the NC State University Campus on Tuesday.
The event was attended by more than 400 policymakers, educators, lawmakers and business leaders. Priorities issued for 2025-26 were not dissimilar from those highlighted in past Eggs & Issues forums.
Lauren Fox, senior director of policy and research for the Public School Forum of North Carolina (PSFNC), gave a presentation listing four major focus areas: Ensuring the state’s school funding system is “Equitable, Adequate, and Flexible;” making sure educator pay is competitive; and addressing student “well-being” both in and outside of school.
The final item was adopting “fair and effective” assessment and accountability policies, which include revamping the A-F grading model for schools and a call for private schools receiving Opportunity Scholarships program (OSP) funds to report student achievement metrics.
“In recent years, North Carolina has consistently ranked at the bottom of the country in per-student spending,” said Fox. “Most recently, we were ranked 48th on per-student spending, falling nearly $5,000 below the national average.”
Fox also claimed the state ranked 49th in the country for the “amount of funding overall per student relative to the state’s role,” adding that, “We have a lot more that we could be doing to fund education.”
According to 2024 statistical data from the North Carolina Department of Instruction, the average per-student spending across state, federal and local sources was $13,222 with state funding accounting for 59.7% of the total.
Fox also criticized last year’s appropriations made by the General Assembly to fully fund the OSP and clear a backlog of over 55,000 students awaiting an award.
“Many of the private schools receiving these funds are inaccessible to large numbers of students and families in North Carolina because of cost, lack of services or admission policies that discriminate based on a number of characteristics like religion, disability, academics and sexual orientation,” Fox said of the schools participating in the OSP.
While the majority of OSP private schools are religious-based, families choose the schools they wish to apply to, and schools are barred from discriminating against students the same way public schools are.
Per state statutes, nonpublic schools in the OSP program “shall not discriminate with respect to the categories listed in 42 U.S.C. § 2000d,” which is a subchapter of the Title VI Of The Civil Rights Act Of 1964. That subchapter “No person in the United States shall, on the ground of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”
Additionally, like public schools, FOSP award amounts are determined by household income, with low-income families receiving the largest awards. Also, private schools in North Carolina are required to administer nationally recognized standardized tests and report aggregate test results of students in third, eighth and 11th grades to the N.C. State Education Assistance Authority, which oversees the program.
Fox touched on the need to increase teacher and principal pay, including compensation for advanced degrees, as well as recruitment and retention issues. She also spoke about the need to increase mental health access for students and teachers, citing the pandemic, Hurricane Helene and an” uncertain future for vulnerable populations.”
PSFNC’s event also included panels featuring teachers, education officials and lawmakers.
Ben Williams, the Wilson County Schools assistant superintendent of administrative services, gave a presentation that tied into Fox’s remarks about extending mental health options for students and staff. He described a program in his county called Wilson Area School Health Centers, which he referred to as “WASH.”
“WASH is a cooperative effort between Wilson County schools, the Wilson County Health Department and the Healthcare Foundation of Wilson,” Williams said. He said there were WASH centers in four high schools already, and the program was being expanded into middle schools.
Williams said a WASH center is a “full-scale medical facility” where a student or staff member can be seen for well-care visits, sick care, physical exams, physical sports, physicals, health education, nutrition services, laboratory services and mental health support. He said parents or guardians have to complete paperwork with the Department of Health in order for a student to have access to a WASH.
“They serve both the insured and uninsured,” said Williams. “WASH bills private insurance, Medicaid, Medicare and also has a sliding scale fee for the noninsured.”
Other panel speakers included N.C. Charter School Teacher of the Year Keegan Storrs and Elizabeth City-Pasquotank Public Schools Superintendent Keith Parker, who brought with him members of the student ECPPS Board of Education.
Near the conclusion of the event, the audience heard from Sen. Sydney Batch (D-Wake), Sen. Kevin Corbin (R-Macon), Caldwell County Schools Superintendent Dr. Don Phipps, 2023 N.C. Beginning Teacher of the Year Natalia Mejia, Clarke Elementary School Principal C’Monee’ Wilkins, N.C. State Board of Education Member Catty Moore, and N.C. Superintendent of Public Instruction Mo Green.
Batch highlighted the need to look at weighted student funding.
“We have to get out of our antiquated way of which we are educating and funding all our school systems across the state,” Batch said, “because those areas that do not have the ability to have local supplements in order to provide what their students need is just inadequate and frankly unfair.”
Corbin, who has been appointed chair of both the Committee of Appropriations on Education/Higher Education and Education/Higher Education Committee, said the legislature needs to look at outcomes for students and how funding supports those outcomes.
“We want positive outcomes, but from a legislative standpoint, I think there’s a couple things we need to look at immediately,” said Corbin. “I want to look at the funding model for how we fund schools.” He went on to say that the current model of funding based on average daily membership is unfair to smaller rural schools
Moore said she agreed with the priorities laid out during the event by PSFNC but stressed the topic of changing the school accountability model.
“As an individual, I believe that the work around reforming the accountability model and our assessment work is something that can have a direct impact on students immediately,” said Moore, adding changes could give a “more comprehensive picture” of a school.
Green said his priority was “achieving academic excellence,” which he described as the “successful coupling of academic achievement along with character development and then a focus on excellence.”
“And I want us to also lean in on this, because when I talk about excellence, I’m talking about us being the very best public school system in the entire country,” said Green.
