This week, the Public School Forum convened over 400 educators, community members, education leaders, and policymakers at the annual Eggs & Issues breakfast. Leading up to the short session, this event highlighted the state’s progress on the Forum’s 2025-26 Top Education Issues. Overall, North Carolina made very little progress, underscoring the urgency of legislative action in the General Assembly this month.
Limited Progress
Over the past year, progress on the Public School Forum’s 2025-26 Top Education Issues has been limited due in large part to the absence of a state budget and disinvestment in public schools. Across the Forum’s four priority areas–school funding, educator pay, student well-being, and assessment and accountability–most metrics showed little to no movement, with some trending in the wrong direction. North Carolina continues to rank at the bottom nationally in both per-pupil spending and funding effort, and a recent North Carolina Supreme Court decision reversing a prior ruling on the Leandro comprehensive remedial plan has further complicated the path toward meeting the state’s constitutional obligation to adequately fund public education. Teacher pay remains uncompetitive regionally and nationally, while critical supports for student well-being, including the school-based mental health workforce, remain significantly under-resourced.
Where progress has occurred, it has been incremental and inconsistent. Promising proposals on teacher pay and student supports were introduced but not enacted, and while the North Carolina Department of Instruction has taken steps toward redesigning its school accountability model, gaps remain–particularly in ensuring transparency and accountability for private schools receiving public funds through vouchers.
Short Session: Will the General Assembly rise to meet the moment?
These trends shed light on a broader policy reality: without sustained investment and aligned policy action, progress will stall and critical needs will remain unaddressed, risking long-term consequences for North Carolina’s future. As lawmakers reconvene, there is a clear opportunity to move beyond proposals and toward implementation that fully supports North Carolina’s public school students, educators, and communities.
This is our moment. Lawmakers will soon have opportunities to return to the table, negotiate in good faith, and deliver results for our students. We can do better. We must do better. The future of our state—its workforce, its innovation, and its prosperity—depends on it. I urge our elected officials to act with urgency and resolve: pass a budget that invests meaningfully in our public schools, address teacher compensation as a top priority, and ensure that funding decisions strengthen the system that serves the overwhelming majority of North Carolina’s children.
–Dr. Anthony Jackson, incoming CEO & President of the Public School Forum, Eggs & Issues 2026
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