ICYMI: Letter From NCAE President Mark Jewell on COVID-19 Legislation

Dear Members,

I hope everyone had a restful and rejuvenating weekend. Now that we know our school buildings will be closed through the end of this year, and we have a clear plan for how and when the state can begin to reopen, at least we a little certainly about what the next few months will have in store, and we can begin to plan with a bit more clarity.

The General Assembly will come back to Raleigh tomorrow, but not for their regular short session. This week the GA will meet under altered rules to allow for social distancing, and will only be considering a narrow set of time sensitive matters related to COVID-19. No visitors will be allowed in the GA building, but we are told there will be video in the chambers for the first time to allow the public to watch the proceedings. Once the details are released about how to access that video feed, will be share them with you.

We are expecting to see a number of education-related proposals from the House Select Committee on COVID-19 Education Working Group, and possibly from the Senate, debated and discussed this week. DPI has requested $380 million to deal with immediate needs ranging from increases in pay for nutrition workers to funding a summer bridge program to get students back up to grade level. The details of their proposal are here.  Many of the proposals have already been incorporated into the draft legislation the House will being considering tomorrow.

Additionally, the Governor released his proposed COVID-19 immediate response package last week, detailing how he wants to spend $1.4 billion in federal COVID-19 relief in the state budget. The money is from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, known as the CARES Act. Broadly, the Governor is proposing to spend $375 million for small business and local government assistance, $313 million to public health and safety, and $740.4 million for education and state government services. Of the education funding, $243 million would go to K-12 education and $77.4 million to higher education. You can see the details of the proposals here.

Once the GA votes on their COVID relief package, they will recess until later in the summer. Remember, we still do not have a budget for this fiscal year, and do not have an approved budget for the next fiscal year, so they will have a lot of work to do before they adjourn the short session. We will be keeping you up-to-date this week as the details begin to come into focus.

I hope your week is off to a great start, and I will talk to you soon.

Most Sincerely,

Mark Jewell, President