March 2023

The North Carolina House of Representatives yesterday released the initial draft of the state budget. The “2023 Appropriations Act” (HB 259) reflects spending of nearly $29.8 billion for the next fiscal year, beginning July 1. In addition, spending plans include a 10.2% pay raise for teachers across the next two years. The draft budget also includes numerous other provisions impacting public education, such as authorizing remote charter academies, setting new guidelines around academic transparency, addressing school safety and threat assessment, and more.

View the House Budget Committee report here. Read more about the draft budget from WRAL, Carolina Journal, and North State Journal.

Watch a video recap from WRAL below:

Earlier this month, Governor Cooper released his recommended budget.

What’s next in terms of budget deliberations? Here’s the anticipated timeline, from the Associated Press:

The House budget committees will debate the measure and consider amendments Thursday. House floor votes are expected next week. Senate Republicans will then advance their own spending plan in the coming weeks.

Leaders from both chambers will then negotiate a final budget bill to vote on and present to Cooper, probably in June.

Earlier today, the Yass Foundation for Education announced the launch of the 2023 Yass and STOP prizes in education. The competition includes 64 education awards, providing over $20 million in grants. See the press release about the 2023 awards launch here.

The application is now open, and the deadline to apply is July 15. Apply for the 2023 awards here.

Semifinalists will be announced in the fall, while finalists will be revealed in December. Read more about the 2022 award winners or about the Yass Prize and Foundation.

Here’s the summary from the Yass Foundation about the prizes:

Each year, the Yass Prize and STOP Awards Initiative recognizes the nation’s top education innovators who outperform for underserved students. In addition to the grand prize, finalists receive $500,000 and quarter- and semi-finalists will vie for $100,000 and $200,000 awards, respectively.

The Yass Prize is sector agnostic, meaning that there is no preference for any type of education other than it be Sustainable, Transformational, Outstanding and Permissionless.

The 74 recently published a wide-ranging interview with Shavar Jeffries, the innovative new CEO of the KIPP Foundation. An acronym for Knowledge Is Power Program, KIPP is the largest public charter school network in the country. In fact, KIPP’s network now features 280 public charter schools. In North Carolina, for instance, KIPP NC, which includes four Coalition member schools, serves over 3,100 students.

Read the full interview with Mr. Jeffries here.

In The 74 interview, Jeffries addresses how to shore up bipartisan support for public charter schools and the challenges that educators face, post-pandemic. Here’s his hope:

We just want to continue to focus on children, to try to not get caught up in a partisan food fight, to really focus on what’s going to support students to love themselves, to recognize their culture and their identity as a source of power and a source of strength in order to fulfill their potential and change the world.

We’re going to ensure that student achievement and outcomes are the lodestar. And hope and hope that if we tell our story to enough of the right people, over a long enough period of time, more often than not, that’ll be good for kids.

Mark your calendars for March 23! That’s the date the application opens for both the Yass and STOP prizes. These awards recognize educators/education providers who are engaged in transformative education efforts. The Yass Foundation plans to award $20 million in 2023. Charter leaders, please consider applying!

Here’s how the Yass Foundation describes its goals for the awards:

The mission of the Yass Prize and STOP Awards Initiative is to identify and support more best in class education providers who can tackle the big education challenges of the day and deliver an education for students that is Sustainable, Transformational, Outstanding and Permissionless. It’s more than an awards program or a philanthropic endeavor. It’s a movement intended to transform education for everyone.

In 2022, the Yass Foundation for Education awarded more than $20 million in grants to new and alumni organizations, including the prestigious $1 million Yass Prize to transform education, given to the group that most exemplifies the STOP principles.

Learn more here about how to apply. As mentioned above, the application opens on March 23. The deadline to apply is July 15. Semifinalists will be announced in the fall, while finalists will be revealed in December. Read more about the 2022 award winners or about the Yass Prize and Foundation.

Yesterday the N.C. House passed HB 8, Computer Science Graduation Requirement, by a vote of 115-2. Beginning with the 2024-25 school year, students would need to pass a computer science class in order to graduate. However, students would have the flexibility to do this in middle or high school.

The bill applies to all public school units, which includes public charter schools. HB 8 has now been sent to the N.C. Senate.

Here is some specific language from the bill:

Graduation Requirement. – Each public school unit shall offer to high school students a computer science course which includes instruction in using existing technologies and creating new technologies. The public school unit may offer such a course to middle school students. The State Board of Education, in consultation with the Department of Public Instruction, shall adopt a list of approved courses that fulfill this requirement and make it publicly available on the Department’s website. A passing grade in this course, whether taken in middle school or high school, satisfies the graduation requirement established in G.S. 115C-12(9d)a.3.

TMSA Triangle will hold a virtual panel at the UN! The event is taking place at the UN’s 67th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women. Model UN students from TMSA Triangle are helping to organize the panel. State Superintendent Catherine Truitt will serve as the keynote speaker.

Here are the details:

WHAT: TMSA Triangle Virtual Panel at the UN

WHEN: Monday, March 13, from 4:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Read more here; register here.

We include the invitation, with QR code, below.

It’s here! The Coalition has a new recap video, showcasing high points from our Summit last week. Watch the video below: