Bill Details – K3 Class Sizes and Other Ed Changes

Bill Details – K3 Class Sizes and Other Ed Changes

The K-3 class size fix bill (HB 90) has been made public.  HB 90 is an omnibus bill dealing with several education issues.  HB 90 is currently being discussed by a joint session of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees.  Follow us on Twitter @NCSBAGovtRel for up to the minute accounts of what is going on.

Below are more details of what is in the bill pertaining to public education.

K-3 Class Size Reduction Phase-In and Program Enhancement Teachers (Parts 2-5)
Here is the class size reduction implementation timeline:

Avg                      Max

2017-18:     1:20 (K-3)          1:23 (K-3)
2018-19:     1:20 (K-3)          1:23 (K-3)
2019-20:     1:19 (K-3)          1:22 (K-3)
2020-21:     1:18 (K-3)          1:21 (K-3)
2021-22:     1:18 (K)              1:21 (K)
1:16 (Grade 1)    1:19 (Grade 1)
1:17 (Grades 2-3)  1:17 (Grades 2-3)


Program enhancement teachers for grades K-5 will be funded at $61,359,225 for 2018-19 to be distributed at a ratio of 1:191 of K-5 program enhancement teachers.

Education Savings Accounts (Part 6)
The bill also makes some changes to the Education Savings Account program.  It still limits the awards to parents of children with disabilities eligible to enroll at a public school who have not received a high school diploma, but it loosens all the other eligibility requirements and just provides that the student not be placed in a nonpublic school by a public agency at public expense.  This broadens the eligibility for ESAs for parents who have never enrolled their student with a disability in the public school system.

NC Pre-K (Part 7)
This provision of the bill increases NC Pre-K funding by $9.35 million in each of fiscal years 2019-20 and 2020-21.  Total funding in the coming years will be as follows:
2017-18: $69.6 million
2018-19: $72.7 million
2019-20: $82 million
2020-21: $91.35 million

The legislative staff summary says that these appropriations should be enough to eliminate the NC Pre-K waitlist by 2020-21.

ACP Dollars (Part 1)
This provision would allocate the funds from a $57.8 million fund linked to the Atlantic Coast Pipeline to the LEAs in the counties that will be impacted by the pipeline.  The bill creates a formula for distributing the funding.  The estimated allocations from the formula to LEAs are below.

Cumberland: $15,115,607
Halifax: $1,920,839
Roanoke Rapids: $2,157,148
Weldon City: $642,996
Johnston: $11,998,658
Nash-Rocky Mount: $7,547,838
Northampton: $3,574,629
Robeson: $7,544,754
Sampson: $2,416,321
Clinton City: $875,403
Wilson: $4,005,807

Total: $57,800,000

 

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