Education bills that stalled in committee reappear in new budget

Dozens of education bills filed during North Carolina’s 2026 short session never got a floor vote, dying quietly in House and Senate committees. But the most significant measures didn’t actually go away. Their provisions were folded into the roughly $34 billion state budget that lawmakers sent to Gov. Josh Stein on July 2.

The pattern is a familiar one in Raleigh, where the budget often becomes the vehicle for policy that stalls as standalone legislation. This year it revived at least seven education measures that otherwise appeared dead. Whether they take effect now rests with Stein, who has until July 12 to sign the budget, veto it, or let it become law without his signature.

What made it into the budget

One example is teacher licensure. Senate Bill 840, the Teacher Licensure Modifications Act, stalled in the Senate Appropriations Committee after clearing an education panel in April.

The measure’s core provisions appear in the budget: easing licensure for out-of-state and international teachers, letting the State Board of Education convert a limited license to a continuing professional license for high performers, dropping the first-year licensure exam while keeping the third-year exam, and expanding K-6 licenses to cover grades seven and eight.

Bryce Fiedler, director of the Carolinas Academic Leadership Network, said the changes tackle a persistent staffing problem. “By removing barriers and red tape, North Carolina is encouraging more high-quality teachers to enter and remain in the profession,” Fiedler said. “That’s far preferable to relying on long-term substitutes to fill those critical roles.”

A separate Senate proposal to screen young students for math difficulties also died in committee but was resurrected in the budget. The spending plan puts $6 million in recurring funds toward a new mathematics screening requirement for low-performing schools, which must test all K-8 students at least three times a year and build a “Mathematics Success Plan” for students who fall behind. The approach mirrors the state’s Read to Achieve literacy model.

Two House bills that stalled in the Appropriations Committee also reappeared. The budget spends $75,000 to create the Student Attendance Early Intervention Pilot Program, a data-driven effort to curb chronic absenteeism that tracks closely to House Bill 1110. It also adopts the principal internship stipend framework in House Bill 1143 and its annual reporting requirement, which measures how many trainees actually become assistant principals or principals within five years.

Fiedler said the attendance pilot targets a problem that has worsened since the pandemic. “More than one-in-four students in North Carolina are considered chronically absent,” Fiedler said. “A growing number of states have launched similar initiatives to track chronic absenteeism and notify families of at-risk students, especially after the pandemic. A low-cost pilot seems like common sense and one of several ideas North Carolina should explore to keep kids in school.”

A win for Lee

The education priorities of Senate Majority Leader Michael Lee, R-New Hanover, also fared well in the final document. A $300,000 work group to study a weighted student funding formula — the heart of Senate Bill 990 — is in the budget. A community college workforce expansion from Senate Bill 991 is also in the budget, devoting $3.85 million to grow a training program for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities and $5 million toward a new Digital Credential Program.

The budget also funds the artificial-intelligence tutoring pilot central to Lee’s K-12 Innovation and Transformation Act, Senate Bill 1006, with a $2.5 million grant program for districts to use the tool in grades six through 12.

Critics question the process

Not everyone welcomes the maneuver. Robert Luebke, director of the Center for Effective Education at the John Locke Foundation, said folding major policy into the budget sidesteps public debate, no matter which party does it.

“I’ve long objected to the practice of inserting significant legislation into the budget bill,” Luebke said. “Yes, it oftentimes gets legislation across the finish line that might not get there otherwise. But it also short-circuits the democratic process.”

“If it’s a good idea, others will see it as a good idea. Our hesitancy for testing many ideas is not a good sign,” he said. “A good many education ideas were folded into this year’s education budget. Regardless of the good it may produce, it’s wrong when Democrats allow it and it’s wrong when Republicans allow it. I wish the leaders in both parties had more faith in our democracy.”

What got left out

Not every stalled measure got a second life. House Bill 1203, the Family Support for Those Who Serve Act, would have waived community college tuition for the children of first responders and long-serving correctional officers, but its provisions do not appear anywhere in the budget or its money report. 

Correctional officers did receive a separate pay raise in the plan — about $47 million in salary adjustments — though that is unrelated to the tuition benefit.

Several other bills remain stalled. A resolution urging Congress to abolish the US Department of Education — House Joint Resolution 1030 — cleared a committee but never reached the floor. A proposed constitutional amendment to elect the State Board of Education also stalled.

Meanwhile, three measures backed by Democrats never advanced: a 7% tax on million-dollar incomes for schools, a bill to defund Opportunity Scholarships to fund child care, and another Leandro funding attempt.

Two education-adjacent bills did move on their own. The social media and AI safety measure, House Bill 301, passed both chambers and awaits a final House concurrence vote, while the college-sports records changes contained in Senate Bill 229 passed the Senate and remain in House committees.

Although the primary business of the short session is over, lawmakers are scheduled to return to Raleigh on July 27 and could take up veto overrides, including a potential override vote if Stein rejects the budget.

“Education bills that stalled in committee reappear in new budget” was originally published on www.carolinajournal.com.