Gov. Josh Stein’s proposed budget for North Carolina includes millions of dollars earmarked for items in Fayetteville and Cumberland County.
Stein introduced his budget proposal on Wednesday and visited Ferguson-Easley Elementary School in Fayetteville on Thursday to promote his proposals to raise teacher pay, build new schools, create opportunities for teachers to coach each other, provide a $300 stipend for teachers to buy classroom supplies and make other improvements to education.
Statewide, Stein’s proposal would spend $34.6 billion in the 2025-26 fiscal year and $34.3 billion in the 2026-27 fiscal year. He also wants to ask North Carolina voters to approve a bond referendum to give the state permission to borrow up to $4 billion to build schools statewide.
Stein wants to increase base pay for public school teachers to $51,200 (before local pay supplements are added) starting in the 2026-27 fiscal year. He wants to ban cell phones for students in classrooms, boost security of school campuses and increase access to childcare and early childhood education.
Republicans have also proposed boosting teacher pay, with a bill to set the base salary at $50,000, WNCN television reported.
What’s in it for Fayetteville
Some items in Stein’s budget proposal for the Fayetteville area:
- $110.6 million of the state’s proposed $4 billion school construction bonds. An assessment recently said Cumberland County school buildings need $806 million in repairs and upgrades. The school system is also considering replacing E.E. Smith High School.
- $9.5 million this coming fiscal year, and $13 million the next, to be split among Elizabeth City State University, UNC-Pembroke, Winston-Salem State University and Fayetteville State University for growth in the N.C. Promise college tuition program. Tuition is $500 for in-state students at these universities, and $2,500 for out-of-state students.
- Another $5 million in each of the next two fiscal years to be shared between Fayetteville State and four universities for the programs to help university students avoid dropping out due to financial difficulties. For example, Fayetteville State offers free summer school to help students graduate within four years.
- Fayetteville State would receive an additional operating fund of $87,586,990 in each of the next two fiscal years, $6.6 million for its ongoing College of Education construction project, and $5.5 million for its H.L. Cook Building renovation and addition.
- $10 million for the North Carolina Veterans Home in Fayetteville. The state shut it down last year because it is in poor condition. The state plans to repair and renovate the home and reopen it.
- $4 million for the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to replace a maintenance shop.
Lessons in scarcity
At Ferguson-Easley Elementary School, Stein spoke with young students then delivered a short speech to local elected officials and education staff.
“It was interesting, I went to four second-grade classrooms, and the word of the day in each classroom was scarcity,” Stein said. “And just yesterday, I rolled out my budget for the state of North Carolina, and I have to admit, I was having to deal with the same lessons these guys were, which is how do you allocate not enough resources to meet the needs.”
The state’s highest priority should be investment in its children and its public schools, Stein said.
“Once a kid gets to school, you know what the number one predictor of academic success is? Whoever that teacher is standing in that classroom in front of them,” he said. “So we have to recruit and retain the best educators possible. We have to give teachers a real pay raise.”
North Carolina has the second-lowest starting pay for teachers in the Southeast, Stein said.
“It is an embarrassment, and it does not need to be,” he said. “My budget will put North Carolina’s starting teacher pay as the highest in the Southeast.”
One out of every five children doesn’t have enough food, Stein said, and the figure is one in three in rural communities.
“If you have an empty belly, you cannot sit in that classroom all day and pay attention to what your teacher is saying, because you’re hungry,” he said. “That’s why I am calling on the state to provide a free school breakfast to every North Carolina public school student.”
This and other proposals drew applause and cheers.
It remains to be seen how many of Stein’s ideas will advance in the General Assembly. Stein is a Democrat, and the legislature is controlled by Republicans lawmakers who nearly have a veto-proof majority.
But he was optimistic that he can work with Republicans to get his priorities enacted.
“We want Democrats and Republicans to agree on what are the priorities for the state of North Carolina,” he said. The legislature wants to move forward with corporate tax cuts that benefit shareholders who live out of state and outside the country, he said.
“Is that the right way to spend our scarce dollars? Or is the right way to spend our scarce dollars to have the best teachers possible in our classrooms educating our children?” Stein said. “So I’m gonna work with members of both parties. I’m going to be as persuasive as I know how to be, and we’re going to see what we can get done together.”
Senior reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at 910-261-4710 and pwoolverton@cityviewnc.com.
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