The North Carolina budgeting process for the 2025-27 biennium officially kicked off this week with the release of Governor Josh Stein’s proposed budget, which outlines his priorities for education policy and funding. The Governor’s budget addresses many of the evidence-based action items called for in the Public School Forum’s 2025-27 Top Education Issues.
Under this budget, beginning teacher pay would increase significantly, with a minimum salary of $51,200 in 2026-27. The average teacher salary would increase by about 10% over the biennium, with much higher raises for beginning teachers and much lower raises for veteran teachers. With current teacher pay in North Carolina ranking 42nd nationally for beginning teachers and 38th nationally for overall salary, significant across-the-board increases are crucial.
The Governor’s budget takes a critical look at the ballooning taxpayer-funded private school voucher (Opportunity Scholarship) program. It adds significant and much-needed accountability and accessibility measures for schools receiving vouchers, including requirements to educate students with disabilities, engage in more robust and frequent financial audits, and report student outcomes publicly. The budget also outlines a policy to offer no new vouchers and gradually reduce state funding to $0 by 2036. This set of actions will allow a significant amount of public funds to be put to better use in our local public schools that are open to all children.
The Governor’s budget recommendation recognizes that the overall well-being of North Carolina’s children and families is essential to success in and outside of schools. The budget not only calls for increased investment in essential services such as early childhood education, healthcare access, and food security programs; but also proposes funding for 330 school-based mental health professionals, a $4 million bond to address critical school facilities needs, and initiatives that would strengthen school security measures.
Next, each chamber of the NC General Assembly will draft their own budget, beginning with the Senate. A conference committee with members from both chambers will then decide on a compromise budget, which will be voted on by both the House and Senate and, if passed, will go to the Governor for his signature or veto.
Veteran teachers getting shafted yet again! The Republican run NC House budget proposal is much more generous to teachers. Shame on Stein for being worse than the Republicans.