The North Carolina General Assembly continues to move at a rapid pace, and it appears they will finish the short session somewhere around the Fourth of July. PENC has continued to advocate for more compensation, health benefits for new hires, and many other items that benefit all current and retired educators. We should be seeing the adjustments to the biennium budget sometime this week or next. PENC will provide a full detailed report once the document is released.
Meetings with Legislators on June 15th
PENC stays in contact with legislators every single week regardless of whether session is in progress or not. Last week, PENC’s Executive Director, Tammy Beach, PENC board members, and lobbyist Bryan Holloway met with several legislators to discuss issues important to educators across the state. The meetings included members from both sides of the aisle, and members that chair the education appropriations and policy committees in the North Carolina General Assembly. In addition, we also met with Full Appropriations Chairs that make the final decisions about salaries, etc. The meetings went well and PENC was positively received during each meeting. Legislators indicated that there are considerations to give more compensation to educat
ors this short session, and details would be forthcoming. They also indicated that any heavy-handed changes for public education would not be considered this session. Overall, the day was a success, and these are the legislators we met with last week:
Representative Jeffrey Elmore: Full Appropriations Chair
Representative John Torbett: Education Appropriations Chair, Education Policy Chair, & Select Committee on An Education System for North Carolina’s Future Chair
Representative Graig Meyer: Education K-12 Committee Member
Senator Jay Chaudhuri: Education Appropriations & Policy Committees Member
Representative Pat Hurley: Education Appropriations Chair
Representative William Richardson: Chair of Judiciary 2
Representative James Gailliard: Education Policy Committee Member
Meeting with State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Catherine Truitt
PENC recently met with the state superintendent to discuss education issues. The superintendent was very generous with her time, and we discussed issues such as compensation, teacher recruitment, and school safety. We advocated for fully restoring the Teaching Fellows Program and for master’s pay. Though these decisions must be made at the North Carolina General Assembly, PENC understands that the superintendent’s position on these issues can be influential. The superintendent took into consideration all of our shared positions, and we feel that we were well received. She clearly understood the importance that Teaching Fellows once had for recruiting new teachers, and she was quite passionate about school safety. She also indicated that master’s pay is currently being discussed during PEPSC deliberations (Teacher Licensure Proposal). Again, we thank her for her time, and we feel that we had a very in-depth discussion about issues concerning our state’s educators.